Laura's Reply

Hey everyone!

Sorry that it's taken me so long to respond to this email. I have been struggling a little with email access, as I was down to a half hour lunch at work due to working part time, and I was still figuring out how to set up internet on my laptop. Fortunately, both of those problems are now resolved. I'm back up to full time, so I now have a full hour for lunch, which feels quite luxurious. The home computer solution was not quite what I hoped for, though. My house was broken into last Friday, and my laptop was one of the things that went missing. So, I will not be having internet access at home any time in the very near future. I'm looking into options for replacing it, or I might end up just relying on my housemate's computer (they are planning on jointly buying a new one).

Anyway, other than being burgled, things are pretty good. As Laura mentioned, I recently bought some new hiking shoes (very light-weight, flexible shoes, definitely not boots), and I tried them out last weekend and like them quite a lot. I'm excited about this whole AT thing, both the trail itself and hanging out with all of you. I think that we, as a group, have a better chance of making it to the end than most of the people who start out together, just because we have a strong foundation of love, trust, and honesty that we're working from. But, I also think it'll be important for us all to "hike our own hike." I want us all to make it, and I think we can. But I also think that it's possible that the trail won't be everyone's highest priority from now until next November/December, when we would be finishing if we hiked SOBO.

Loo's bro is going off trail soon, because he's decided that he just doesn't want it enough anymore (or at least, that's the understanding I have of why he's doing it). And I can understand that. I recently decided that running a marathon isn't worth it to me. I don't care enough about it to be in that much pain on a regular basis. I'll be running in the Denver Half Marathon instead. And I know that that decision is right for me, at least for now. I could see some or all of us deciding midtrail that there are other things that we need to be doing. If anyone's looking at grad school, that would need to start in the fall. While the thought of doing the whole trail in one go is really exciting, maybe it's not going to work for everyone right now. I'm reluctant to let go of the big, crazy dream, but maybe just doing half of the trail is something we should consider. I think I might want to continue past the halfway mark, but that's not necessarily something we need to decide now, or even before we leave. But let's not give up on our chances of staying together before we even leave. I know that I want us all to start together, and really, that's all we need to know right now. So that's what I'm committed to, and I'm committed to you all as well. I'm pretty comfortable with that, and I hope that you guys are too :)

Well, I thought I'd sent this email much earlier this week, and I need to get out of here, so I'm going to just send it off now. If it seems incomplete, I'm sorry, and just shoot me an email so I can clarify.

Love you all, and thinking good thoughts of the trail!

Laura