Things I Still Have To Do

With only 2 days to go I am faced with what seems like a million things to still take care of before I go. I need to:

•  Order my phone through Rentafone Japan
  
• Pick up a pack cover, some extra hiking socks, boxers, pack repair kit, batteries, and insect repellant from EMS
• Print out my Nakasendo Map from the computer
• Print out my Hotel/Ryokan confirmation e-mails and their locations
• Print out my itinerary
• Buy my remaining toiletries: sunscreen, deodorant
• Remember my Passport
• Pick a Medical School
• Pack everything up 
• Get on a plane

Traveling Solo

As it gets closer and closer to my trip I've been thinking a lot about what it's going to be like traveling alone for five weeks. I've mentioned this before briefly, but I'd like to talk a little bit more about what this means to me. 

I've never done anything remotely like this before. I had never even been hiking before this year, so making the decision to walk over 300 miles straight was pretty wild for me. Part of the allure is in the fact that this will be (and has been already) one of the few things that I've really done on my own. This is not to say that I think I've lived a particularly sheltered life compared to most. Or that, say, my parents wrote my college essays, like some people I know. But I've never really had to go out and do something on my own like this for an extended period of time.

Mostly, I want to see if I can do this. I know that the act of walking in itself isn't a particularly difficult thing. But I think having to rely on myself day after day for a month will help me learn a lot about who I am, and what I'm made of. It's something that I've thought about quite a bit this year. I was doing Kyokushin Karate for a while this Winter before I moved back upstate with my Mom, and I think that was partially about answering this same question. I've spent too large a portion of my life sitting around and thinking about doing things instead of just going out and doing them myself. So walking the Nakasendo is just one way I can try and figure out who I am.

I know that there will be parts of this trip where I'll want to give up and go home. I will miss my friends, my family, and my Jilly. But in some way I think the best part of going away is that you have time to think about what is really important to you. I think that often we qualitatively label emotions we experience when alone like loneliness or nostalgia as "bad"; but honestly I think that these are some of the best reminders that we are alive.