Buying your Ticket

Buying your ticket doesn’t have to cost any money. It doesn’t have to be made of paper or in your email. You don’t have to give it to anybody. Buying your ticket is a specific moment in time when your dreams and hopes transition into plans and preparation.

It’s been one year since I was in San Francisco, and I bought my metaphorical ticket to thru hike the Appalachian Trail. I was with my long time friend and fellow thru hiker to be Icarus, although he was known only as Brandon at the time. He was the one who explained to me what “buying your ticket” really means.

It is the moment that you tell your boss you are leaving in March. It is the moment that you tell someone how you truly feel. It is the moment that you literally buy your one way ticket to Spain. It is the moment you move from being 99% sure you are going to do something to being 100% sure. It is the moment that you know there is no going back.

Buying your ticket can apply to any situation in life. It is the hardest thing to do. Once you take that leap, there is no turning around in mid air or you’ll just end up falling on your ass.

This is the time of the year I know that there are so many future thru hikers out there dreaming of what the trail would be like. Wondering if they can really do it. Anxious about the quitting their jobs. We’ve all been there. Everyone has those worries. Once you have bought your non-refundable ticket though, whatever that may be for you, all those worries immediately turn to excitement. The hardest part is over. You are really doing this. Take the leap, and I promise you will never regret it. So does Mark Twain.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

-Mark Twain