My Salomon hiking shoes hit the road yesterday for the first time in eight years. I’d gotten them at the height of my trekking craze in grad school. Clearly deluded, I thought trekking was going to be a big part of my life. My plan was to start first on local Maryland trails, then progress to walking part of the Appalachian Trail, continuing on to booking package trekking tours in the Himalayas, some of which incorporated yoga along the way. I drew the line at climbing Mt. Everest although I obsessively read about that and other trekking experiences.

Somehow, I managed to con a few of my friends into going with me. One had actually had some serious trekking and camping experiences but since she didn’t say anything to dissuade me, I thought my dreams were possible. In hindsight, she probably didn’t say anything because she wasn’t really paying attention to my nonsense!

More fun than the actual hiking were the shopping trips we took to REI and other outdoor gear stores. I got a cool hiking backpack (several years later, it acted as my diaper bag), pants that unzipped to become shorts, a hiker’s first-aid kit, compass, and some other completely unnecessary stuff. Thus outfitted, we ventured out almost every weekend.

All of this was, of course, overboard. Other people walked in nothing more than athletic shoes and casual clothes. A teenage girl we spotted wore a mini-skirt. For the well-maintained dirt trails we were on, even a mini-skirt was ok except for the one time we slid on our butts down a small steep slope because we couldn’t tell where the trail continued.

If I overanalyze my behavior (as I always do), I think the whole pretense of trying to be a serious trekker was an attempt to prove that I could be someone other than what I appeared on the surface: non-athletic, shopaholic, fashion-conscious, hard working, and bookish. No one would believe it, but I can be just as eccentric and daring as anyone.

Trying to be someone different doesn’t mean I don’t like myself the way I am. I just think trying on different personas and fantasies helps keep me adaptable. My Salomon shoes and I will never set foot on the summit of Mt. Everest, but we can dream even as we stroll down the sidewalks of London.

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