Changes
I’m back after a hiatus (explanation below) and am making a few changes. First, I’m switching to a weekly rather than semi-daily Appalachian Trail journal to focus a larger portion of my daily writing time on more time-intensive articles and book reviews. This week’s journal brings me just past the halfway point, a fitting place, I think, to make changes. The homepage of my website now emphasizes recent content from all writing categories because I will no longer share a journal post in conjunction with any other writing I publish.
The second significant change is that I am eliminating all social media integration with my site (and life). WordPress themes build in social media icons. I believe I have gotten rid of these. My theme also included a worthless ‘like’ button, as if my articles are themselves social media posts. The best way I found to eliminate this cruel button was to make it the same color as the background. Take that.
Why eliminate social media? One, I want to spend none of my own time on social media, which includes cross-posting from my blog. Social media demonstrably wastes our time with its predatory algorithms, contributes to a greater feeling of animosity because these same algorithms boost more vicious content because it is more profitable, and harms our mental health at a population scale. To those who argue it also has positive effects, I agree but personally, see nothing so redemptive to overcome these flaws. Social interaction before social media – which I remember – was clearly better.
Thus I end my own participation in the social media era. This has clear benefits for me, but I also think about broader (and maybe less real) benefits. By removing any content I might add to social media, which I only post because I view it as positive, I leave social media that much more devoid of redeeming qualities. I find social media to be not always but too often a grotesque mess of falsehood, unwanted advertising, and base or simplistic human behavior. Nowhere is this more apparent than on Twitter since Elon Musk‘s takeover. If Twitter shows us the direction social media is headed, and it was already bad before, I want no part in this future. I want us to return to a more local, face-to-face method of communication. While I cannot make this happen myself, I can denigrate social media and seek not to lend it any redeeming characteristics (which is what I am now doing). I deleted all website-related and personal social media accounts. I feel like I am in charge of my life and have no regret.
Family Time
Enough about that. The highlight of my last two weeks on the trail were visits from family. Understandably, it gets lonely hiking largely alone day after day. In the Shenandoahs, my aunt Julie, uncle Brian, and cousin John met me. After a stifling hot day, it was a great relief to see them They were so generous and supportive. We hiked a few miles of the trail together as well. John is a student at James Madison University, 23 miles down the hill from Shenandoah National Park in Harrisonburg. I hoped that if our schedules aligned, we could see each other. That neither of us could access a car easily posed a challenge. With minimal advance planning, Julie and Brian drove down to make the meeting happen and to join themselves. I’m so glad they did.
Thank you so much, Brian and Julie, for coming out. John, I’m really glad I got to see the beautiful area where you live and am proud of how you have navigated all of the academic and social craziness of starting college.
My parents hiked the Maryland section with me, about 40 miles. It was awesome. I loved talking with them throughout each day, which made the time fly by. Maryland was unseasonably cold, so they will probably forever associate Maryland with cold. The sun barely came out, and the temperature hardly topped 50. But the forest was lovely, and we enjoyed some top-tier shelters and pleasant little viewpoints. My dad and I also had a memorable time trying to hang our massive food bag (which we dropped 4 times). Amazingly, the only casualty was an exploded bag of nuts. So grateful you made the journey and logistical effort to join, parents!
On priorities
At the end of April, I was pushing to catch a train in Harpers Ferry WV and using all my time for doing the necessities and hiking longer miles. Also, I am working with an organization called 28twelve Foundation that provides scholarships to Christian graduate students. While pushing for the train, I also reviewed applications. After I left the trail briefly from Harpers Ferry for a 28twelve meeting, I worked to connect new fellows to mentors. Then my family joined. This push was awesome and challenging (and the reason for the 2 weeks of quiet on the blog), but now the monotonous rhythm returns (and much more writing).
Now, I want to renew my focus on being present and enjoying a deep and self-driven educational experience. It feels like most others on the trail are locked in a distance competition, hiking farther each day from sunup to sundown to stay with each other. I don’t want to join. Though I fall behind, I want to continue prioritizing reflection, unhurriedness, writing, and learning. This is my one chance for this before returning to hurried life. I am not out here for physical achievement. I am excited to share more of the host of articles, book reviews, and poems I have in progress.
Halfway
I am camped by Deer Run at mile 1116, 19 miles beyond of the official halfway point of the Appalachian Trail. With longer days, nicer weather, and ready legs, the second half will surely take less time. For the first time, I see the end of this hike peeking over the horizon. This is why, as much as I enjoyed writing frequent journal posts, to achieve the goal of producing a good quantity of analytical writing, I will focus my writing energies in the second half on more longform articles. My next article will be about the purpose of education, motivated by this trip as an educational experience.
Furthermore, after 11 weeks, I have less to say in journal form. Each day becomes predictable. You get up, have breakfast and pack up, do some stretching and rolling, start walking, and spend most of the day walking. You run into a few friends along the way most likely, say hi to some passing strangers, and make a few stops. Then you arrive at camp, set up, have dinner, and go to bed. There’s little else to say. For one, I think I’ve covered most of the interesting content about the lifestyle of the Appalachian Trail. Two, I don’t think my life – or anyone else’s – is particularly noteworthy. I’ve never found personal blogs or YouTube channels where other people talk about their life whatsoever appealing. Instead, there are endless nuanced, complex topics arising from our interactions as people worth writing about. Thus, I tried to make the majority of my journal entries consider some larger topic, rather than describing the uninteresting details of each day. In this upcoming second half, I think more articles and book reviews and fewer journals will prove a superior format to convey what is truly worthwhile about my hike, which is the expanse of time that I have to listen and reflect.
