One of the mark’s of immaturity is to let other people define your goals, instead of defining them for yourself. Who decided that the AT should start at Springer and end at Katahdin, instead of starting and ending somewhere else? Whoever it was, it wasn’t me, which means that, regardless of how much I try to convince myself that it is my goal is to hike the entire AT, to some extent this isn’t really my goal, but rather someone else’s. And so, in a sense, by planning to hike the AT, and letting someone else set my goal, I’m failing right from the start at the biggest goal of them all–namely, to be myself.
The determination to continue doing something you don’t enjoy and which isn’t teaching you anything significant is simply stubborn stupidity. That’s failure in my book.
“Loss of will” may be another way of saying, I’ve grown over the course of my journey and no longer am the person who wanted to hike the whole AT. That’s success in my book.
Now I’m sure the originator of this thread will reply, “But I am only concerned with people, like me, who are absolutely sure that they want to walk to entire thread.” Well, my friend, I don’t think such people exist. The desire to hike the AT is not a biological instinct. It is a learned desire, and hence one that can be unlearned. If you happen to unlearn the desire while hiking, but then stubbornly continue, I’d be very hesitant to call your hike a success.
As for those people whose desire was sincere to begin with and whose desire never diminished, well most of the people in that group probably did walk the entire AT, other than the one’s who fell prey to injuries or to unforeseen circumstances, like a death in the family. And you don’t really a survey to know what the injuries were either. Surely it’s the usual culprits–knee problems, back problems, a few torn shoulders, etc.
Frank Jackson
