Reminiscing and Appreciating

 

Friends, family, and hikers alike, I wanted to take a moment to create a short post on my excitement of the upcoming year. A LOT is happening in my life in the upcoming three months. After four years without sleep I’ll be graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design on March 14^th with my Bachelor of Fine Arts. Three days later I am set to begin my Thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

 

The People Behind the Monkey

I am so grateful to all my friends on trial and off for the continued optimism throughout the years, I hope this hike will show how far positivity can push people. I’m especially fortunate to have two parents who not only allowed me to peruse my passion for the arts, but then encouraged me to take 6 months off after school to live my dream. I’ve put these two through hell at times in the last 21 years, I’ve been caught sneaking out of the house, possessing marijuana, and found with a little too much vodka in the system. While they apparently never taught me to be sneaky, they certainly never gave up on pushing me to find a constructive lifestyle. This journey is in part for you Mum and Dad, thank you for showing me to the starting line!

Included in the most amazing people I’ve met in life and more specifically my collegiate career are the professors who have run me through the gauntlet that is Visual Effects. During my time with them, they have opened my eyes to a brand new artistic perspective and encouraged me to question what would otherwise be considered impossible. They have showed what I would love to have as a career, and even stood by me during a near fatal accident and a facial reconstruction mid-semester.

 

Onward Towards Life

 

The next 10 weeks leading up to my departure will surely feel strange. Unlike some on the AT, I have yet to see where my adult life will take me. Every experience I’ve spent hiking has provided enlightenment to a new branch of my life. My outlook on life may completely change, and the truth I face behind the journey is that I truly don’t know what new perspective I may have by the end. This unknown is what I live for, to chase the horizon and see who and what lies beyond puts a lighting in my bones that I feel nowhere else. So here is to 2017, the first New Year where I truly feel that I am about to enter a new life. I hope to fill it with love, laughter, and a whole lot of hiking!