[pct-l] the pct and memory

[Pea Hicks]

something i realized the other day is that when my mind drifts off to 
reminiscing on my thru-hike, i can never conceptualize the whole thing 
at once. i may remember certain places or interesting things that 
happened, but the next time i think about the pct, i'm likely to 
remember entirely different places/stories/people, and the next time 
after that, even more seemingly unrelated things... to the point where i 
often amaze myself that all of these very different, unique things were 
part of the same journey, the same experience. and i'm still finding 
myself with memories bubbling up of places/stories/people that hadn't as 
yet come back to my mind. and i find myself saying "oh yeah!! that TOO 
was a part of all this?!? that seems like something from a completely 
different lifetime!"

it's not like when you take, say, a weeklong cruise, where even if you 
go to a variety of places, you can still pretty easily conceive of it as 
a single "event." for me, the pct transcends that sort of comprehension. 
the minute i think i've got a concise cognitive handle on the entire 
experience, i remember something else that i had completely forgotten 
about that adds yet another layer of vital complexity to the whole picture.

i suppose you could easily make the same observation about any other 
large-scale event in your life, like high school or a particular job, 
etc. but for some reason this one feels different to me, much more 
deserving of the term "epic." could be just my tendency to 
over-romanticize the whole thing.

in any event, i have a feeling that my mind will be trying to get a 
handle on this for many years to come.


girlscout