What Hiking Taught Me About Education... But It's Not What You Think

This is not a blog about how I was inspired to write about motivation and accomplishment after hiking in the wilderness.  It is not about the hard work that allows you to persevere in times of difficultly.

Oh, no.

This is about lies, deceit, and manipulation.  And yes, education.

Follow me, if you will, for just a little background knowledge.  I met my husband in January of 2011.  He decided it would be fun if we went to Gatlinburg, TN for a weekend trip.  I was excited; there is massive shopping down there.  But when we got down there, he wanted to hike.

"That sounds like a fab idea!" I responded.  We did go shopping after the hike so all was not lost.  But this turned out to be a thing.  The hiking.  It was a thing.  Twice a year we did this.  Then we got married.

It was the fall after our wedding, we were 4.5 miles into a 9 mile hike when I confessed: "I hate hiking."

He froze. "What?"

"I hate hiking.  In fact, I hate the smell of the outdoors. I also hate sweating and walking to turn around and walk back.  When your back is turned, I shake the pedometer so we can end it quicker." (I actually wrote that last part after my husband read my blog, so he still doesn't know that...)

He was crushed.  I had lied to him this whole time (actually, he never really asked me if I enjoyed hiking).  I had manipulated him into thinking I was a bunny of the wilderness just so he would marry me!  That's dramatic, but he was still confused, "But why do you do it?"

It started off that I did it because I loved my husband.  I wanted to be excited about things he was excited about.  I wanted to support him in hopes that he would support me (for those of you that know me you know that, in itself, can be a full-time job).

Wait!  Here's where the education part comes in!  I realized that, having endured the horrible smell and the sweat and the not shopping, that I liked accomplishing things. When 1 mile became 3 and then 9 and last weekend we did a 16 mile hike, I loved it!  I, and this is really horrible, you might want to skip to the next paragraph, I like feeling like I'm better than other people.  My therapist would say it's a cover for the fact that I can't accept myself for my flaws, but she doesn't read my blog.  I like being able to say, "Yeah, we hiked 13.5 miles with an elevation change of over 3,000 feet."  I leave out the part about how I could barely walk the next day.  But this is my story so I can tell it like I want to.  I had found my motivation for hiking.  No matter how, uh, unique it was.

There's more: and this is really educationally important.  On one hike there was a cemetery.  I LOVE cemeteries. We walked around and took pictures of the headstone.  When we got back to town, I noticed the names from the headstones were on business and streets around town.

Let me also confess that I HATE history.  I think it a horrible subject.  I am not doomed to repeat it as long as my mother is still alive.

BUT! here's the thing.  After seeing those names, I began to research.  Which turned into buying and reading books.  I was obsessed with deaths, disappearances, and feuds of the Smoky Mountains.  In all of my research I accidentally learned about immigration, emigration, prohibition, westward expansion, the industrial revolution, I could retell facts, dates, cause and effects, and not because I had to memorize anything.  It was because I was invested.

So, my point is this: We have to find out what inspires kids.  I love accomplishment and graveyards.  This has allowed me to love and be successful at hiking and history (ok, that's a stretch, but you get my point).  Some kids are easy and some are harder.  But find what they love.  In fact, I am so into this now I told my husband we could pretend to be homeless, er--I mean, we could go camping next time...