Re-inventing Myself

If I were to follow in the footsteps of Chris McCandless of re-inventing myself, but not to the extreme of wandering into the Alaskan wilderness, I would tun to a similar kind of mission yet in a different area: The Appalachian Trail. When I read about McCandless' ideals and journey, I admire his bravery and conviction towards righting the things he found wrong in order to start a new life. I actually find this idea to be slightly tantalizing and I have a small urge to do the same.
Since camping and hiking through my years in Boy Scouts, I have always been a fan of the outdoors and the concept of being alone without society constantly buzzing in the background. In fact, after I went on a scout trip to the Northern end of the Appalachian trail at Mount Katahdin, I started to consider taking this interest to the next level. I had already seen thru-hikers, people hiking the entire Appalachian trail in one go, on the trail, but it wasn't until I saw the end of it that I imagined the possibility of actually taking on this challenge.
I had once been hiking for ten days straight on a scout ranch in New Mexico and when I was there, I felt a sense of calm and relaxation because of the intense connection with nature I was able to experience. Looking at the Appalachian Trail, I see a crazy opportunity to tackle a large goal that inculdes the peace of nature and the excitement of the sights. The liberation in nature and also from society is very appealling to me and is something that I feel will help me develop my own values as a human. Sometimes we all need to take some time to separate ourselves from the stresses and intricasies of society to realize the true important things in life. I feel that my faith and positive attitude would benefit greatly from this expedition as I would face many diffictulties and tough times on the trail.
To set off on a trail in the woods with the supplies needed to complete a trip over two thousand miles of hiking invigorates me. The freedom and responsibility involved in the undertaking is hard to completely grasp until I take that first step on my own. While all of this thought and discussion about the Appalachian trail has been hypothetical, I still consider taking on this challenge as an option for me further down the road. I would love to put my entire life on hold just to discover nature and the world apart from society. The growth I would experience is practically unfathomable and would be something I wouldn't trade for the world.