Life AS TurkeyBacon

So it would seem from reading my first three posts that I still obsess over my time on the AT. Its really not so...
So this past week was really hard on me. I had a bad mental event (what ever that means), had to rethink the way I'm looking for jobs, and got sick with the stomach virus my lovely wife passed on to me. It was time for a little AT therapy. I pulled out my old Priority Mail box crammed pack full of AT photos (I hiked just before digital took over photography) and most importantly, my trail journals. When someone decides to do something as extreme as hike the AT, they want to remember it and most to all of us journaled quite a bit. The greatest gift I gave myself from the AT was my journals. I haven't read them in quite a while, in fact the box was still taped up from when we moved to Boston. I definitely noticed a few trends. First and foremost, I have forgotten just how unhappy I was before I started. The other obvious thing I noticed about reading the journals was my desire to find a serious relationship. I can laugh now at how much I tried to "hook up" on the trail. It definately makes me beleive that the AT simply cured my unhappiness. Meeting Jess is what polished me off and made the person I am today.
I was a lot of fun to read them. I have forgotten how many blisters I got. I mostly remember getting heat rash on the soles of my feet (yes, it hurts), but the blisters are not on the top of my memory. I constantly complained of a knee or ankle hurting. The same knees and ankles that I have to be gentle with today. But the reality of the AT is that is all about surviving the suffereing. If you can take pain, you are more likely to do well. My emotional transformation was also apparent. It is often said that people learn the most from suffering. New Jersey and New York were bad for me. I thought I developed Lymes disease and got treated with anti-biotics for it in New Jersey. I got a fever, even though it was constantly in the high 90's in New York. And after all that suffering, things changed. My first few days in Conneticuit is when my journals turned into "therapy sessions" as I called them in my journals. I could read the transformation from a pessimist to a optimist. And then the calling of Katahdin took over. New England was a wonderfull place for me. I definately felt like I was out there to become a happier person and definately felt like I was accomplishing my goals. Ironically, I also thought I was going to be a biology teacher in Maine. So I am in New England, but happily a med tech.
The two things I tell people I learned from the hike was patience and not to sweat the details. I never mentioned either one of these things in my journals. These apparently were learned in retrospect of my hike.
So what did I learn from this trip down memory lane? I've come a long way since my time before the AT. This will help me recover from past week and help me in the next coming weeks as I start to interview for my next job. Of cource all the jobs Jess and I are looking at are pretty close to the AT. So maybe the AT will stay an important part of who I am for many years to come.
Scott (TurkeyBacon NOBO 02)