Happy Hippie Hiker

There are those days when everything that I do goes against the grain.  I only need to look at someone and they are offended.  I open my mouth and the gates of hell swing long and wide.  I don't understand really because I am the same person as yesterday. But today I am pissing everyone off...go figure.

Today, I told my mother that D was going to leave St Patrick's Day to hike the Appalachian Trail. She looked at me really confused and said how is he going to hike and continue to work his job?  I said well he is going to work out a notice and quit.  She went completely off the chain!  She was wringing her hands and I tried to explain to her that he is only 22!  This is exactly the thing he needs to be doing.  He needs to go out and see the world.  He dropped out of college with six credits left and went to work in a shit hole factory.  Now this factory is the one that my mom and her sister worked and retired from...que music...

I contribute this to the fact that no one can live up to my mother's standards expect her sister and her children.  Mom is embarrassed to tell Moe(her sister) that D is not engaged or even in a steady relationship.  Nik on the other Moe's granddaughter who graduated with D has been married for a couple of years and has a son.  Yep, a son.  I have a back packing hippie son therefore my mother has a backpacking hippie grandson without any great grandchildren,  So this was my time spent with my mother... and another check mark in the disappointment column.  I gave her all of the best reasons in the world. 

1. He is only 22.
2. He is not married.
3. He does not have a penny of debt.
4. He worked and paid for his car.  Paid in full.
5. He paid his insurance for the year already.  Paid in full.
6. He is under our medical insurance for four more years.
7. He will to learn to appreciate his family, his home, the our planet, to be self-reliant and responsibility.
8. Everyone that has walked the trail, says it changed their life.
9. He is too young to be stuck in a factory job.  They have a way of buying your soul with each year of seniority and every matching dollar in your 401 K pretty soon they own you.
10. He may never have this perfect opportunity again.
11. Hopefully he will figure out what he wants to do with this life and finish college. 
12. D walking the trail for six months is nothing compared to getting married and having a baby at 21, that should make you sad...game over.
13. He has our full support and we will do everything we can to help him succeed. 
14. It is only six months not a life time.  
15. I want him to live and be happy when he finally settles down without regrets.

She said he can hike on weekends and still keep his good job and Roger that lives two houses down hiked the whole trail on the weekends and  a week at a time.  I said yes, and he has a wife, two kids, and a mortgage.  I finally gave up and left her scowling at me with the look she always has when I am a disappointment...which is most of the time.

I encourage both of my sons to explore the world and that it doesn't end at Gatlinburg, Mrytle Beach, or Roanoke.  When D was a senior in high school,  we told him that anytime he wanted to hike the trail or any adventure that he wanted to do, we would support him and try to make it possible. Over the years we have hiked sections of the trail with both boys.  We hike for seven days one time with D age 8 and G Unit age 3.  I only wish that it was possible for The Man to hike it with him.  He plans to do sections with him this summer and take G Unit.  Unfortunately, my hiking days are over, well at least pack hiking.  We have made the same offer to G Unit aka Man Child whenever he graduates.  I only wish a life of no regrets and many, many good memories.

So suck it mom.