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Looking Back is Important for Moving Forward
But it almost turned me into a pillar of salt
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“It’s hard to explain, but it just feels so awkward to talk about it,” Alice said, “I don’t want to bore people, or come off as obnoxious.”
Having been on a similar journey, I knew how she felt. I met Alice while walking the coast of Great Britain when I discovered her through Instagram. She was running the coast in the opposite direction, so we arranged to meet.
Our paths crossed beside the Thames River, and we sat on the sea wall as the sun set chatting all things coasting.
Seven months later, our paths crossed again at Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. We met in Wetherspoon, ate cheap burgers and shared our ambivalence of the coast’s beauty and brutality.
After finishing, we stayed in touch. Reintegrating into everyday life after such a transformational journey has been difficult for all the coasters I know.
“I think I spend too much time living in the past,” Alice said, “I’m working on looking forward more, so it feels counterintuitive to spend too much time talking about the adventure.”
