180 Degrees South

I just watched a documentary detailing the trip one man took to Patagonia. The documentary was more about the discoveries he made along the way about our planet, what we are doing to it and learning to love the beauty of the wild places that remain to us.


http://www.conservacionpatagonica.org/index.htm

It definitely struck a chord with me. I make jet engines for a living. Something that feeds consumerism and war. I'm not saying that it's inherently wrong, because I feel that's going too far to the other end of the spectrum, but I think it isn't necessarily what I want with my life.

I love the people I work for and with and what we make is interesting and displays the raw ingenuity of the human race. However, I want to be able to see those wild places and experience them before they're gone.

I'm making it a 7 year goal: I want to thru-hike the Appalachian trail. 2180 miles of North American East coast. It takes the average thru-hiker nearly 6 months to complete the journey.

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/about-the-trail

In 7 years I want to be in a place where I can leave my job, store everything for 7 or 8 months and start walking. In the mean time I want to get out more. See more wilderness that the U.S and the World have to offer. I want to make life a journey and not just the monotonous keeping of a routine.

I know that it's easy to say these things and hard to do them but hopefully it will give me something to shoot for. Something worth trying, something to let me know that if all this isn't simply a test I passed anyway because I did what I set out to do.