A Walk Across America: Time to Feel Naked

Hey guys, I’m walking across America. Well, something like that. Technically I’ve already walked from Illinois to San Diego, CA, to Newport, OR, but that was the hike to the trailhead. I’m heading east to Yellowstone to begin the ~20,000 mile journey through all 63(?) of the national parks. That’s the main trail and I am so excited.

Why wait 4,500 miles to begin sharing my story?

I’m a chicken. I’ve been sharing to Facebook and Instagram for some time now, but blogging just makes me feel more naked and vulnerable so I have a higher standard for the bits I’m willing to expose. For the past eight months I’ve been writing these 2000-3000 word posts that I cannot edit to my standards and just end up trashing them. I’m done doing that. I have to stop being scared of sharing my writing and I have to be okay with being a beginner. I’m terrified, I don’t know how to be a good writer, but I also didn’t know how to be a good backpacker and look at me now, 4500 miles deep into this journey.

I should note that I chose not to pitch a tent last night and my response to rain drops assaulting my face in the middle of the night was to check my weather app Only a fifty percent chance of rain for the next hour and a half? Fuck it. I pulled my sleeping bag over my head and went back to sleep. I woke up dry. Life is good. I’m still not the best at this backpacking stuff, but I’m better than the beginner that started the journey.

Anyway, back to me not knowing how to write: I’m going to be experimental with the way I share my journey until I find the best way to share my story. This my forewarning: It will be ugly from time to time. My style will be inconsistent. My voice will be inconsistent. This is how I learn. I’m choosing to be okay with that. I’m accepting it, so let the journey within the journey begin.