PDA

View Full Version : Do it now!



sbhikes
11-22-2010, 12:32
In 2008 I was feeling like I could tell I was starting to get old. Little aches and pains, my vision getting bad, my youth fading away. So I quit my job so I could follow my dream (since 1975!) to hike the PCT. I'm glad I did.

Yesterday on a long local dayhike, my 60-year-old boyfriend collapsed on the trail with chest pains. Search and Rescue took him to the hospital. They said he had a cardiac event of some sort. He has been biding his time, waiting for retirement. He doesn't talk much, but I bet he is feeling right now a little afraid he won't be able to hike the PCT himself after retirement. He looks fine today, but we won't be going on our annual Thanksgiving backpack this year.

So, do it now. Hike the trail. Don't put these things off.

Spokes
11-22-2010, 12:35
Well put. Here's hoping for his speedy recovery.

DapperD
11-22-2010, 13:09
It's just like when people say, "I'll do it Someday!". Like the old saying, "Someday Never Comes!". A lot of us have plans for our future, which is good and important, but sometimes what life has in store for us winds up being different then what we have imagined, and it alter's our ability to fulfill our plans and dreams. If we are able to fulfill them at the present, then it is wise to do so if life affords us the opportunity. Sometimes, however, it does not and so we must put off our goals and dreams unfortunately out of an order of necessity.

John B
11-22-2010, 13:22
I hope your boyfriend recovers quickly and, if it's truly his dream, hike the PCT.

I've heard others suggest quitting one's job to follow a dream, but I'm curious what kind of job it was that you left and if you were able to find a similar (perhaps better?) job when you finished hiking? I'm in a 'professional', white-collar job and I doubt that I could find a position with equivalent pay if I were to quit. It would be hard to throw away all of those years that I've accumulated toward retirement, losing health insurance, etc. all for the sake of following a dream. All that said, I"m glad that you found your decision to be right for you.

Hoop
11-22-2010, 13:55
Cardiac events usually leave one holding a big bag of anxiety (been there), people recover or deal with a wide variety heart conditions with limited or no restrictions on activity. Or not. Wait & see.

sbhikes
11-22-2010, 14:17
I quit a job in web development. I do not have as good (meaning, as much money or benefits) a job now as I did then, but it is still in web development. I'm not sure money means as much to me as it does to other people, especially after my hike it doesn't even mean as much to me anymore.

HiKen2011
11-22-2010, 15:09
I quit a job in web development. I do not have as good (meaning, as much money or benefits) a job now as I did then, but it is still in web development. I'm not sure money means as much to me as it does to other people, especially after my hike it doesn't even mean as much to me anymore.

Unless a person is super wealthy its really just an illusion. So many people I know (who were or are business owners) have really struggled in this economy. Some have lost everything. I was making really great money and lost my job, if I had a lot of debt, I'd have been in trouble. Most folks that make a good salary are so leveraged that even they live week to week, mortgage, credit card debt, car payments. The american dream...............for most people it's just being in debt, thats all. Thats no dream, I think I've said this before but here it is again, Thats a nightmare. I'm retired now at the young age of 51, don't have a lot of money but I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Money can't do that, not for me!

4shot
11-22-2010, 15:38
I hope your boyfriend recovers quickly and, if it's truly his dream, hike the PCT.

I've heard others suggest quitting one's job to follow a dream, but I'm curious what kind of job it was that you left and if you were able to find a similar (perhaps better?) job when you finished hiking? I'm in a 'professional', white-collar job and I doubt that I could find a position with equivalent pay if I were to quit. It would be hard to throw away all of those years that I've accumulated toward retirement, losing health insurance, etc. all for the sake of following a dream. All that said, I"m glad that you found your decision to be right for you.

"great" job if one defines that by salary, benefits, title, etc. Quit last year because I know longer enjoyed it and was on the verge of just punching the clock as many do. Then I decided to hike the trail and it feels great to have achieved a lifelong goal. Now I can't find any job (do not want to relocate thus I am "overqualified" for most jobs locally I apply for) but I have absolutely no regrets at all about leaving my "great" job.

Brother, if you like what you do, stay. I don't think anyone suggests quitting a job that you truly enjoy. However, if you don't, leave. Do not "hang on" until retirement. That seems like a slow death sentence and there are plenty of people doing that. People say they "can't" leave - what they mean is that it's not a high enough priority for them to do so.That mindset (thinking you can't leave) will turn a job into prison.

Walkintom
11-22-2010, 19:00
Work to live; not vice versa.


Almost everything we (most people in the US) spend money on has little to do with sustenance. It's all fripperies.

AeroGuyDC
11-23-2010, 04:03
I'm in Iraq right now working (not military) and will be here until September 2011. I have decided that my "someday" will be a NOBO in 2012. I've calculated that there will likely never be another point in my life where being voluntarily jobless for 4+ months will make sense, so it's 2012 or never. When I leave Iraq, I will be debt-free and I've already started calling my NOBO the "Debt Free Victory Lap." 2012 wlll be a year of memories for me....debt free....AT thru hike....and probably even get married later that year. Looking forward to it!

4eyedbuzzard
11-23-2010, 09:21
You never know what life will throw at you. I just got back from helping my cousin get settled back into her condo to await a lung transplant. She's only 58. She has sjogrens syndrome (auto immume disorder) and it attacked her lungs causing pulmonary fibrosis. She's on 24 hr O2, etc.

That said, you shouldn't "throw away" the rest of your life to hike a trail. Many of us have family, careers, children, etc that are also as important or more so to us. It's a tough balancing act, and you obviously can't do everything you want in life - you have to choose. Just be sure when you make those choices that it's what you really want both then and in the future and that you won't regret making that choice.

Spirit Walker
11-23-2010, 11:55
My husband is an engineer. After hiking the AT, getting a job was a real problem, as it was during a previous recession and the large companies were merging and laying people off by the thousands. We had a long period where I was working temp jobs while he looked for another in his field. Fortunately, as hikers, our wants were few and our needs were met by a smaller income. A few years later, when our finances were more or less in order, we knew we wanted to do another long hike but feared another long period of joblessness. Then we considered the fact that Jim's younger brother had already had two heart attacks and a triple bypass. Heart disease runs in Jim's family. We decided that for us it wasn't worth waiting five years or more for retirement. We headed out to the CDT. When we got back, we were both able to find good jobs, ones that actually paid more than our previous ones. But we didn't know that at the time. For us, it was worth the risk. But then, we didn't have a mortgage or children in college. Those make a difference. I think we understood that our lives would change after our return and that the old lifestyle might not be possible. But our new one might be better, so we risked it.

sbhikes
11-23-2010, 12:27
We don't have children (well, his kid is an adult.) He is 60. If you think about it, he really doesn't have a whole lot of time left to do something this physical. He isn't quitting anything to do anything, but I'm sure he's worrying now about his future. The aches and pains creep up on you, the heart could be a time-bomb. You just don't know. What do you want out of life? To be a funnel for money to circulate through or someone with great memores at the end of your life?

rip waverly
11-23-2010, 18:55
wow, this really puts "life" in perspective.
my regards

jbenson
11-23-2010, 20:26
I quit a very good job when I was 55 and went to Guatemala to learn Spanish and adventure a little. Then had some severe heart trouble. Now have an artificial valve and a defibrilator/pacemaker. I'm almost 67, have worked as a seasonal park ranger for the past 10 years, live at Cape Hatteras, travel alot, fish alot, hike alot, and genuinely enjoy life. Wish I'd have quit that job sooner.

Dogwood
11-23-2010, 23:19
SBhikes, at the end of 2004 I surprisingly and unexpectedly had a "cardiac event" in the form of open heart surgery. It was very unexpected because I was so young and seemingly healthy and physically fit. Having your chest/pectorial muscles sliced in half can take a long time to heal, or so it seemed. Thank God for morphine and oxycontin! It seemed like it took a very long time to finally physically feel like myself again. Shortly after, I started to train for the AT. I often trained with long intense cardio road bike workouts. In late Nov 2005 while training on the road bike for the AT I was hit by a speeding motorists going 75 mph. Woke up unconscious an hr later in the middle of the street with a medi-vac helicopter nearby that flew me to the trauma hospital. Broke my left ankle, severely stretched my left foot ligaments/tendons, but did not snap them, fractured several ribs, had several deep lacerations, including one on my skull that required 128 stitches, deep bruising/inflammation, etc.

Kept ALIVE my VISION my DREAM of thru-hiking the AT through it all!

Thru-hiked the AT NOBO starting in Georgia on April 13 2006!

You are damn well right, Rip Waverly, those kinds of events puts "life" into perspective!

CARPE DIEM!

I have no issues with my heart anymore!!! Unless, I have my shirt off and folks look closely at my chest noticing the very faint scar, no one suspects I'm a member of the "zipper club!"

Hopefully, you and your boyfriend take some inspiration from my story! I don't reveal it often!