[at-l] Hikes for Other Reasons---

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 08:58 PM 2/22/2005 -0500, Leslie Booher wrote:
>Today, the Google Alerts had two articles about kids doing thru-hikes: the 
>one that TJ Fort had sent us from MS, and another about someone from 
>MD.  The one from MS is doing this as a series of projects for college, 
>and the other is doing it for the American Lung Association.  Can't anyone 
>admit anymore that they just want to go do it because they need to do it 
>for their own satisfaction?  It just makes me sad.  anklebear

Well, as has been noted here in the past, doing a thru just because you 
want to is a selfish undertaking and frankly that doesn't go down well with 
parents who are paying for college or bosses you are asking for an LOA, 
etc. Maybe it's just what they have to do to get the approval they feel 
they need for something they actually need to do for their own 
satisfaction. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the 
resources/support to do a thru without justifying it to others.