Upon
my high school graduation,
I had the wild idea that I was going to hike from the very southern tip of
Florida to the most northern part of Maine,
all before I was married and had children.
My parents just laughed and said “yeah right, with what money and what free
time?” I had never
actually hardcore “hiked”,
only a few day hikes up to High Point,
and was known to come up with outlandishly extravagant ideas on the regular. However, growing up in the North
West my love for nature and the outdoors was sparked by my botanist of a
grandmother’s summer explorations in the southern Oregon wilderness,s to
identify invasive species and learn of plants in the wild. With exposure of the wilderness
from a young age,
my passion and enjoyment of the wild and nature had increased as I got older
and the prospect of an outdoor adventure made my hunger to complete my “crazy
hiking plan” increase.
Orientation for Christopher Newport University
came, and I received
my schedule of my first semester classes;
Sacred Communications being a class I largely questioned. Summer passed and I was all move
in in a blink of an eye.
Classes started up and I found myself in an abstract class. With a style of teaching I had
never before witnessed,
Dr. Redick launched
me into a new topic,
Sacred Communication. With
his casual Hawaiian shirts and use of many visuals during lessons, such as photos, maps,
videos, and even hands on artifacts I was
drawn to our subject matter. I
was shocked to learn that our class would be largely about the Appalachian
Trail, as I had
already thought of hiking the entire East Coast before even coming to
Christopher Newport. With
an interest in a possible thru hike,
my attention grew more and more to,
not only what theories were being taught in class,
but to the personal stories Dr. Redick shared
with us.
Personal growth and life lessons learned along the trail and the sense of
adventure were all appealing potential events that drew me in, as those were my original
motivating factors,
but what really sold me on hiking on the Appalachian Trail were the stories of
the trail magic and trail angles along the way.
As
I become a more independent young adult,
I’m quickly learning that the world is not as nice and friendly as I had begun
to believe. Fraud,
violence,
and corruption are everywhere; negativity
is all over the news.
However,
to
learn that there are people along the Appalachian Trail, strangers, who use their own money to provide
hikers with soda,
candy, fruit, and full meals out of the goodness
of their hearts along the trail really struck up emotions within myself.
To hear that people retire or leave their jobs
to open up a hostel or even open their home as a place for hikers to stay,
really opened my eyes to how the Appalachian Trail is so much more than just a
dirt path or “green tunnel”(Figure 3). There is a secret community within the back
roads and small towns that line the course of the Appalachian Trail. These acts of kindness and
strangers being so generous make me want to be a part of this community. Stories read and told in class
made me want to save up some money and hike out to an area where I could make
some of my own magic occur.
Handing our water bottles or simple words of encouragement seems so gratifying
if it motivates just one hiker to push on.
Reflecting
on what seems like a quick semester,
I have learned so much more from
Dr. Redick in Sacred Communications
then I ever anticipated.
I learned the idea of You and I,
the concepts of flow and distanciation,
but I also had a restoration of my faith in humanity.
Dr.
Redick’s tales of trail magic and trail angles,
as well as stories shared within the documentaries I watched in class and the
entries I read online,
have made me more optimistic in my own future and how I can impact others’
lives as well.
I leave each class feeling inspired to go out and take the world for all the
opportunities it has to offer,
and I am now excited for what is to come and the memories I can make, just like the life changing stories
I have heard in class.
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