Life Is Short, Our Time Is Now

“Why would you want to sleep in a tent for six months?”

Honestly, it sounds like the dream. If you love being in nature, escaping from the mundane workplace, and pushing yourself to new limits, wouldn’t you want to do it every day?

I actually hated hiking growing up. I just never saw the point of walking somewhere, where maybe there was a view, maybe there wasn’t, just to turn around and walk back. Sydney grew up in South Florida, and that’s not exactly prime hiking territory, so she was never really exposed to it.

So What changed?

I think for me, later on in high school. I started hiking in the North Georgia mountains, which unknown to me at the time, are part of the AT. I kept seeing white paint all over trees and rocks, and after a bit of research, I knew this was something I had to do. I became a pretty avid hiker, and knew that when I graduated college, I would set out to conquer this 2,190 mile journey. Sydney fell in love with the outdoors during her time as a camp counselor in Snowbird, NC. Sydney and I met in college and when I told her about my dream, she immediately was on board. It’s been a couple years since we’ve graduated, but now we’ve saved up the money and we’re doing the dang thing in March.

Why?

The challenge. The beauty. The simpleness. The chance to spend six months with your best friend doing what you love to do the most. We’re both young, no kids, and stable careers we can come back to. My dad passed away in 2016, and he had so many things he talked about doing, including hiking parts of the AT with me. Life is too short to say, “One day I’m gonna…” Sydney and I found that out the hard way, but we can’t wait to complete our biggest bucket list item. Now onto the training.