To Teach, To Hike (and to Hell With Normalcy)

So I've talked about my dream of hiking the AT but another huge goal of mine is to be a teacher; and they are more intrinsically linked than you might expect. Four to six months of introspection is something I feel I need in order to become the best version of myself which, I'll need to do before becoming a teacher. Children love to hear about other people's stories. If I complete this hike, I'll be able to share adventurous tales that will show them that no matter where they are in life at this moment, they can go anywhere they want if they put their mind to it. I want to be able to epitomize not just a dreamer, but a doer; someone who successfully follows their dreams despite, or perhaps because of, all the naysayers. Once I've hiked the trail, I will see my career as my dream job, not a job that's in the way of my other dream. It would be a mistake to become a teacher before finishing the Appalachian Trail because not all of my attention will be on the children; a good chunk of it will be focused on the hike I didn't make happen.

The other types of things I want to be able to teach them is that, every single person they ever run into, will be able to teach them something and vice-versa. Due to this reciprocity, we need to respect each of those people. I also hope to show them why they shouldn't fall for the fallacy of the word "normal". We all have made up our own definitions in our head as to what that word really means and very few of them would match up. And since there are people from all corners of the earth living in all other corners of the earth, the word has become moot. My last and, to my mind, strongest point that proves this is that if someone can say I'm normal, then, seriously, what the hell does that mean. I was adopted when I was six and I've felt like an outcast at almost every school; there's no way that word applies to me; and yet someone used "normal" to describe me one day.