A Sense of Nationalism

I know that this post is not necessarily related to my hike, but I was surfing the internet in between studying last night and I found this extremely emotionally invigorating video. It reminded me to not become complacent and ignorant of the struggles our nation is going through right now. It reminded me that, as a gun owner, my CONSTITUTIONAL rights could become infringed upon within the next couple years if the wrong president is elected (or re-elected in this case). I am not saying by any means that the Republican candidate is perfect. In fact I disagree with quite a bit of what he has said recently, but I have realized that if I were to vote Libertarian in the upcoming Presidential election that my vote would do very little in protecting my rights as an American citizen as that vote would not be going towards a candidate that has an actual chance of winning the election. Anyways, enough of my rant. Here's the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utWV3rU7Ea0&feature=watch_response

Gear list

My complete gear list will be posted in a couple weeks once I get back to San Antonio and am able to lay everything out.

Reflection Time

So I'm a little less than 2 months out from my SOBO hike and I'm really finding it hard to focus on anything other than the trail. Of course when I think about it how could it not be hard to focus when your gearing up for something that will consume the next half year. Things other than finishing school and the trail have now become unnecessary thoughts, actions and materials. Training has consumed much of my free time and with hard training comes lots of sleep for me. This past week though I've been sidelined with a minor injury to my foot so I haven't ran in a week. I have to be very careful now because in the next couple months my feet will be the most important part of my physical body.
As stated earlier, my mental health is just fine. I've really had time to think about what this hike means to me and what I want to get out of it. This is not only something I've wanted to do since I was in high school, but it's something I feel is necessary in my growth as a person. I need to figure out what path I need to take in the upcoming future. Not only is this hike a good time to do that, but it also fuels my love for the outdoors. Well, it's time to get back to studying for all the tests and projects that my professors felt necessary to assign two weeks before finals.

Thanks for reading.