Independence

 I’ve been coming to grips with the fact that I’m about to move to the Big City and leave behind the oh-so-close trails, lakes, and farms of the mid-state.   So I paid my respects to the Appalachian Trail for perhaps the last time in a while and went for an Independence Day trail run this 4^th of July.

It started out very quietly, I’m guessing most people were at home mixing up their potato salad (gross) and chopping their watermelon.  But as I went deeper into the state forest, I started seeing people that had obviously been on the trail for quite some time.  The first 2 guys I saw I about scared to death; they both jumped out of their skins and started mumbling incoherently. 

The first day hiker I came across, poor thing, had just stopped and spread his legs apart and was clearly picking an XXL boxer wedgie and scratching his nether regions, not expecting anyone to be running up behind him, but SURPRISE!  I wizzed by trying to keep my giggles to myself.  I thought he was going to faint he looked so mortified.

Anyway, I kept a-jogging and greeting people I passed with “Happy Independence Day” and the hard core folks that had been on the trail for a while all had the same response, “Oh!  That’s right; that is today…”

On a steep grassy uphill portion, I crossed paths with a couple dudes and the first, surprised, asked me, “You’re hiking all alone?”  At first I thought he meant that it could be dangerous, but this is not exactly a treacherous trail, I had a whole CamelBak of water, my signature can of mace, First Aid expertise, plus I’m fit as a fiddle.  Most of the hikers I passed were alone, and I’m sure he wasn’t posing that question to ALL of them.  But then I wondered if he thought it was odd that I was hiking alone and a FEMALE.

 As soon as the thought entered my mind I was, perhaps symbolically, caught with some prickly vines on my shorts and as I ripped away from them, I couldn’t help but think of the women under the dark regime of the Taliban who literally could not even leave their own homes without a male escort.

—I know, I always manage to find a way to link all bad things back to the Taliban, but this is what I was honestly thinking—

Suddenly, wishing people a “Happy Independence Day” took on a whole new meaning for me.  I thought of my own independence -not just our nation’s independence from Britain- and of the freedoms that I personally enjoy, not just as a citizen, but as a single young woman.

How blessed I am to be able to attend graduate school anywhere I want, vote, own property, have a job in any field I want, live by myself, run for office, and literally have the freedom to do what I want when I want!  (Of course, some of those things I may choose to do might get me in trouble, but I have the freedom to choose to do them and the right to an attorney if I do AND I can guarantee that I will have due process of law and that I won’t be stoned as punishment!)

And the strawberry on top was that it was a super gorgeous day and as I relaxed into a back float wearing a (revealing!) bathing suit –no burqas for me!-, I gave thanks for my liberties and, despite being crowded into the lake with 100s of other celebrants, I felt truly independent.

(*originally posted here)

PS How adoreable is this legitimate mailbox in the middle of nowhere for hikers to write home to their Mamas!