Originally Posted by gravityman
agree with every part of this from my own experience as well!
Another thing to keep in mind is that the unemployment rate is very high right now...some people have been unemployed for almost 2 years. So there are going to be many, many people out there with gaping holes in their resume during this time period...it won't be that big of a deal...just tell prospective employers that after you got your bachelor's degree you looked for a job and when you realized how bad the economy was you decided to go to grad school while waiting for the economy to improve.
Roughly 10,000 people have thru-hiked the AT. You'd be one of the few that is willing to do something so monumentally difficult. I'd only see that as a plus if I was hiring.
No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.
There is an option to the "either screw around before you start work (young and poor) or screw around when you're retired (old and established)" dilemma.
My plan when I got my BSEE degree was to work my ass off and live frugally and be financially independent before I was 40. It wasn't easy, but it worked. I rode my bicycle to work for my entire, if short, career (the money saved by never having a commuter car went into the retirement fund), and at age 40 I was as fit, if not fitter, than most 25 year olds. At the risk of bragging, I still am. Hitting the trails was a snap.
The frugal lifestyle fit right into trail life. Cooking cheap meals (lots of rice and beans) instead of going to restaurants, making and fixing stuff instead of buying it, bicycling and walking instead of driving a car, heating a small (paid-for!) home with gathered wood instead of a gas furnace--I didn't know it at the time, but all these were great preparation for thru hiking. Not having a European sports car in the three-car garage, or a state-of-the-art home entertainment system and wet bar in the finished basement of the starter-palace home was yet more preparation for trail life.
I'm not the only one, and not only professionals with degrees have done it. It's very un-American, not being a consumer, and virtually everybody tells me, "You can't do that." But to most Americans, it's impossible to hike the AT, as well.
Best of luck in your decision. Most of all, best of luck in that first step of your career in these tough times.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
There are other types of engineers?
Do you live with your parents? Are you receiving financial support from them?
If you're paying your own way, do your own thing. If your parents are paying your way, do their thing, or man up and stop taking their money. Then do your own thing. Things are probably different now, since I hear a masters is the new bachelors, but I've never worked with an engineer that impressed me with a masters over a bachelors.
Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe - Thomas Sowell
Hike now. In five or six months you will learn the life lessons it will take your peers ten or fifteen years to learn.
Long distance hiking is a metaphor for life. Life is the journey not a destination. You will truly understand this when you look back on your hike. Right now, that statement is just words you've heard people say. Don't hike with Katahdin or Springer as the goal. Hike with seeking fulfillment from the simple act of walking as the goal.
I took my first real backpacking trip in the summer of 1977 when I was thirteen years old. I met a guy who had thru-hiked and set that as a goal. Then I finished high school. Then I went to college. Then I went to work to pay off college. Then I went to law school. Then I went to work to pay off law school. Then I got married. Then I kept working to pay for my new married lifestyle. Then I had children. Then I kept working to pay to raise my children. All perfectly good choices. I have still not thru hiked the AT.
Now I section hike with my son. We have a grand time three or four days at a time. I would not trade my life, my wife, or my children for anything. But, every time I finish a section a little voice inside my head says, "you should have done it then."
Who's to say whether the life, the wife, and the kids would have been different if I had hiked then. I do know, if I had hiked then I would not have to stand at the exit trail head at the end of each hike yearning to walk on and wondering what lay beyond the next bend in the trail. I would have a memory of it and I could share that memory with my son.
My son and I talk about thru hiking together someday. I hope it happens. Meanwhile, I will enjoy the journey.
Rainman
Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,
It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
- Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass; Song of the Open Road.
You can pretty much figure people on a hiking oriented forum are going to suggest you go hiking..
It's your decision and there is no right answer.
FWIW The best engineers are independent thinkers............
I'm a big fan of eastern family values, but nobody's right all of the time. No disrespect to your parents intended.
Respectfully, of course it is his decision. He knows that already. But, he asked for advice. When someone asks for advice telling them it is their decision and there is no right answer is not particularly useful. People who ask for advice are seeking input from those with life experience greater than their own. That is what members are offering here.You can pretty much figure people on a hiking oriented forum are going to suggest you go hiking..
It's your decision and there is no right answer.
Rainman
Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,
It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
- Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass; Song of the Open Road.
My point was that it's l like asking asking an insurance agent if you need insurance.
Nothing wrong with it of course - I wasn't denigrating anyone.....
Understood. Thanks for clearing the air.
Hike on.
Rainman
Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,
It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
- Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass; Song of the Open Road.
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