Therese Marie

Dear CT,

I thought I hated you. Growing up here was complicated for me.

But then I got out on this section of the trail, and you know what? Connecticut isn’t all that bad! 56 or so miles gave me a humid, mostly relaxed, sometimes rocky landscape. What a great way to spend my first 5 days back in the woods.

The days were full of many happy moments. We stealth camped next to rivers and power plants!

We made new loving kind friends in Salisbury!

We found a really cool leaf!

We made friends with southbounders because there’s a whole bunch now!

We had some pretty nice views! Which I was not expecting to be honest!

We stole hand sanitizer from a random portopotty on the side of the road!

And, as you can see, my new friend Bobo had to pick his nose a lot.

But most importantly, we just had a damn good time. Even if we were drenched in sweat the entire time.

Oh, you might be thinking I’m exaggerating about the sweat. I wish I was, but there was in fact one night when I wrung out my shirt, and liquid seeped out of it.

For all the hours I spent damp and tired,

all the rocky steps, all the slip sliding and falling down hills because my sneakers have no tread, I had a much better time than I expected!

It was weird hitchhiking and bumming around towns in my home state. I’m not used to that. And, what’s more, I spent so much of my teens hating it here, feeling trapped by it. When I was 17, I felt suffocated by the idea of a future in Connecticut.

But this week, after I took that last picture with Bobo, I had a funny thought: if you’d told 17-year-old me that in 6 years, I’d still be in Connecticut, just stealing hand sanitizer out of a portopotty enjoying myself, I would’ve laughed and said, “No way. I’m moving far away.” But, I guess I have moved far away AND yet I’m still here. In a way, I still am moving. Next week, I won’t be in the state anymore. Soon, I’ll be in Maine. But while I was here I liked this section of trail. A lot. I love the people I’ve met, the care I’ve received, the connections I’ve created.

Maybe 17-year-old me wouldn’t have known this yet, but life is pretty unpredictable, and you’ll be given some amazing opportunities if you’ve got the right state of mind. It’s all about perspective.

Sure, my life is far from perfect. Will I let that stop me?

Absolutely not.

Until next time! Fly on!

Lil