Backstory

May 2012

I’m now in Kasukabe City, Japan. I’ll be here until July 20 teaching English at Dokkyo University in Soka, which is about 30 minutes away by train. My condo in Boulder sold in 62 days, listing to closing. To be here, near Tokyo, feels somehow normal, but at the same time, I cannot believe how the last few months have brought me to this place. I am so lucky.

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February 2012

These last few months have been uncertain as I tried to find an ESL or library job in the Denver/Boulder area. But instead, I was accepted into a teaching program in Japan! I’ve decided to sell my condo so that I have more flexibility in my future endeavors. My city and school will be assigned in a few weeks. I fly to Tokyo at the end of April and I cannot wait!

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November 2011

I feel a sense of satisfaction as I read the update below, now being on the other side of what I embarked on last spring. I returned to the AT and hiked 1375 miles from Georgia to New York. Then after a few weeks at home preparing for the next phase, I flew to China where I taught English to 11th graders. Then this last summer I returned to the AT and finished that epic trail, hiking 805 miles from New York to Maine. (This was my 2nd complete hike on the AT – I thru-hiked the trail in ’98.) My time in China sparked a new interest in teaching and I’m now exploring ways to build on this experience here in Colorado. My skills as a librarian served me well and I know they will continue to in whatever capacity I find working with international students.

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March 2010

Welcome to the blog of my upcoming journeys, dedicated to philosophy, planning, questions and general musings as I embark on a second tour of the Appalachian Trail and then on to a teaching position in China.

I’ve had several lives, sometimes one dovetailing nicely into another; other times suddenly bouncing off into a completely new direction. All have brought me to the place I am today with my experiences, successes, do-overs and strong impulse to explore the next thing.

One of those lives, and the most recent, has been that of a public librarian. This, after being a backpacking guide, waiting tables, working in a hospital, tagging salmon for the Forest Service in Alaska, and graduate school, with various outdoor adventures interspersed along the way – hiking the Colorado Trail twice, the AT, part of the Long Trail in Vermont and 41 of Colorado’s 14ers, and a 21-day trek in Nepal.

And circumstances are such that I get to venture out into the world again – another stint on my beloved AT and a season in China following that.

Thanks for being here and sharing your dreams as well!