7 (rather shallow) reflections on walking across michigan
From June 11 to June 19, I walked across the state of Michigan. You can read about it on my most previous blog post.
Without a doubt, the walk was one of the most difficult yet also fulfilling experiences of my life. Never before have I felt so utterly hopeless at times and also experience momentary breakthroughs that made it all worth it.
I wanted to write this blog post for 2 primary reasons. First, people have been asking me a lot of questions about the walk, so I thought this might help paint a clearer picture for them. Second, so much happened within the 9 days of travel that there is no possible way I can remember it all. Throughout the travels I wrote down a lot in my journal, but I also wanted to translate it into an organized blog post so that I can look back on it later and remember.
Before we get to the main course of this blog post, here’s a quick overview of the trip, presented in the form of questions:
faq’s
We’ll go as quick and simple as we can with these. Below are the most common questions I get asked time and time again. Not that they’re bad questions, but they lack substance and thus, they’re not that fun to talk about. So let’s get these common questions out of the way, so that when people actually do ask me a question, they can ask me the good stuff:
Did you walk the whole way?
Yep. However, I got a little excited the last 3 days and ran a bit of those.
How long did it take?
9 days to cover approximately 180 miles. A day’s walk ranged anywhere from 15 miles to 27 miles.
Where did you sleep?
Wherever would give me good protection (from any animals and bad weather) and where people wouldn’t see me. On the 2 days in the bigger cities — Lansing and Grand Rapids — I was undeservingly fortunate to be (overly) treated and welcomed into the places of my friends Young Yi and Luke Kim, and Kathy Kang.
What did you eat?
Anything nonperishable (ex. trail mix, granola bars, beef jerky, dried fruit). Also, it wasn’t long before I realized that buying dinner at a restaurant was essentially buying access to a hotel minus the bed — $8 for dinner, unlimited water, an electrical outlet, bathroom, chair, and air conditioning. Sometimes I would stay in a restaurant for up to 4 hours on end.
But on occasion, #treatyoself with ice cream.
Why did you go on this walk?
Read my other blog post.
Would you do it again?
Heck no! Not unless I felt called to do it again. While the overall trip was fulfilling, there were many aspects and events I would love to never experience again.
What places did you go through/visit along the way?
I’ll show you (in order):
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thoughts in my head
Now that that’s done, onto the good stuff. Following are 7 of the many takeaways that came from this trip.
PLEASE KNOW that the 7 following reflections are rather quite shallow, or in other words, “surface-level.” I personally don’t want to share the especially deep moments of transformation and realization on here, because, well, some things are best left out of technology and social media. This does not mean that I don’t want to share these things at all — I really do like to talk about them — so if you would like to hear about the better stuff, then let’s meet up or let’s talk on the phone. (Please don’t text me about this.)
In no particular order:
1| i have an even greater respect for homeless people than before.
I don’t know how they do it. No guaranteed income, no guaranteed place to sleep. The elements are brutal. People’s judgements are even more brutal. This leads me to my next point:
2| there are people out there in need.
Let’s face it. We all know it, yet we don’t do much about it. I once heard a statistic that there are enough food supplies in the world for every single person to be adequately fed. In fact, the average first-world person has just as much excess food as the average third-world person needs.
3| people are generally quite nice… given the right circumstances.
There is faith in humanity!… if people judge you favorably. Walk into a bar and tell them that you’re hiking across Michigan, you get ample amounts of free water and encouraging words. Walk into a bar and you look homeless, you get isolation and rude service. At some point in the trip, both perceptions were placed onto me.
4| technology is great.
Google Maps and Google Earth are so unbelievably accurate it’s scary, but they definitely saved me more times than I can count when I got lost. After the trip, I got a car ride back from Grand Haven to Ann Arbor — it was both equally demoralizing and amazing that a 9-day trip by walking was completed in just 3 hours by car.
5| but technology isn’t that great.
I always seem to forget the invaluable experience one gets by simply choosing not to check social media constantly or immerse oneself in mp3’s. I’m not saying not to check social media — just don’t check it every hour (there’s no need to). Try singing once in awhile; make your own music. It’s brilliantly therapeutic.
6| the saying is true: nothing in life goes according to plan.
During the first five days, about every single thing that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. I found out (quite painstakingly slowly) that no matter what I did, I couldn’t control anything. Fix one problem, another arises. Fix that problem, two more pop up in its place. Best thing to do is to simply embrace the fact that life is best lived if you give up control.
(one of my biggest unexpected adversaries came in the form of incredibly painful blisters. by day 1 i had a total of 4 blisters on the bottoms of my feet. by day 4, the number had grown to 11 blisters. luckily i met a nurse-in-training in east lansing who taught me how to properly pop blisters. the rest of the week i spent a lot of hours on bathroom floors improperly popping blisters.)
7| we humans can do so much more if we realize we are not alone.
For anyone’s who has ever felt that they are on their own, hope is a very hard thing to find. There were many times (I admit) that I too felt this hopelessness and contemplated giving up under all the hardships I was facing. The thing about the feeling of close companionship, however, is that if we possess it, all powerful difficulties both physical and mental suddenly become very much weaker.
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some concluding thoughts
It’s been about a week since I completed the walk and I already feel the once vivid memories starting to fade into blurred memories of the past. As much as I try to retain everything, I will probably forget many of the fine details of what happened throughout the walk; but even if this happens I will be quite content if I can simply remember and embrace the 2 most important takeaways from this trip.
I am loved forever, and I am not alone ever.
A bit cheesy?
Yes, but undoubtably true.
Thank you for this experience, God. You put the team on your back and are greater than I will ever know.
You have won.
