Meanderings: February 28, 2020

How exact is your life?

The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2,200 miles and takes five to six months. Approximately.

When planning my upcoming hike (five more days!), I realized how much of our lives here in first world U.S.A. are exact.

“My preparation is about precision. It is a science.” – Conor McGregor

I’ve spent the past year getting an exact paycheck for an exact number of hours. Before that I earned an exact GPA. When I ran track in college, I finished in exact times at exact distances. Heck, even my writing is usually catered toward an exact word count for an exact deadline.

I’m sure that if you live in the United States or another first world nation, you have similar exactness in your own life.

Perhaps you work an exact number of hours. Perhaps you pay an exact amount for your mortgage, or seek to get an amount of steps in each day.

Exactness is a point of pride for me, too. I stand a little taller when I tell someone I’ll arrive in 15 minutes and show up right on time. I smile broadly when I pay with exact change. I feel an odd satisfaction when I nail a word count exactly as requested.

Tell me I’m not alone in this.

“Be infinitely flexible and constantly amazed” – Jason Kravitz

I haven’t started my hike on the Appalachian Trail yet, but I’m looking forward to attempting to break up the exactness in my life. In fact, I’ve found it is almost impossible to be exact in my preparations.

To combat this, I plan to wake up approximately at sunrise and will make camp approximately at sunset. I plan to walk approximately 15 miles a day and plan to finish approximately in the beginning of August.

Past that, for the first time in my life, I have hardly a clue what each day will hold while on the trail.

For approximately the next 2,200 miles and five to six months, that’s exactly what I want.