Date: 2013-02-27
From: Hamilton Square, NJ

To: Princeton, NJ
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

(In which I assign myself arbitrary challenges for the journey)Last night I found myself in attendance of a Bible study which I participate in rarely. It wound up being an uncommonly lively discussion, as well as digging somewhat deeper than normal. It is a 20-somethings small group, and the night's subject matter was an article talking about how one's time in their 20s is not wasted, as apparently some believe. It was an article from a business journal, so much of the article was about how one should put everything toward building a career. Near the beginning was the line "...this impression of footloose independence and exciting romantic exploration can be misleading."With my current position beginning a tremedous adventure, this easily provoked me to words against everything the article had to say. It was about career growth and put zero value to personal growth. I do not want to become someone whose life is defined by their job, where their person becomes the same thing as their career. Later in the article, it asserts that 80% of life's defining moments take place by age 35. It then immediately tells you that 2/3 of your income growth will happen in that period. While it does not necessarily link these two statements, the overall nature of the article suggests that the intended meaning is that these things are linked together. While I have found my income increase gradually over the last several years, I would call none of those a defining moment. I feel that I have had plenty of personal growth and possibly even defining moments over the past couple years, and none of those have come from my job. What was learned at work was how to do the work put before me. All learning about myself came from other sources.Arbitrary thru-hike challengesToday has been pretty slow. Tonight is my last Princeton dance for a while, but I will reserve writing on those antics for tomorrow's entry. I will have plenty of time to write on a 16-hour train ride. For now, I will dedicate this entry to assigning myself some challenges to try completing over the course of my thru-hike. I think most of these have been inspired by other folks.1. Attend as many dances as possible - Warren Doyle, dance caller and 16-time thru-hiker, told me his record is 20 dances over the course of a thru-hike. I hope I can surpass that count!2. "The Biathalon" - Warren's term for walking 20 miles in a day and then attrnding a contra dance and dancing all night.3. "The Triathlon" - walk at least 20 miles, eat a half gallon of ice cream, and dance all night.4. Dance in every state on the Trail - this might be difficult in Connecticut, but I will try to get to a rare western CT dance!5. Dance on the Appalachian Trail itself - hopefully some dancers will walk with me and we can find good places to dance on the AT. Probably blues and waltzing.6. The four-state challenge - start the day on the Virginia - West Virginia border near Maryland and walk over 40 miles to Pennsylvania in one long day. I have one shot at this, and it may be the least likely challenge to complete.7. The reverse 30-hour challenge - quite the opposite of #6, thus involves taking a zero day not in town but in the woods, setting up camp and staying there for at least 30 hours before resuming progress north.8. Enjoy the Mahoosuc Notch - widely regarded as the toughest mile of the Trail, this pile of boulders in Maine can take a couple hours to complete. It can be seen as stressful slow progress or it can be seen as a fun scramble. I hope to enjoy it.9. Inspire others to adventure - this one is pretty open-ended and I may not know how well I do with it, but I really hope my stepping out into adventure in spite of the material world's suggestions against doing so will serve to inspire others toward their own personal adventures. Life can be full of beauty and wonder and growth, and it pleases me to see others experience this.That is all I can think of for now. If I come up with any other odd challenges for myself, I will add them here.Peace,