From 6 to 8

It must have been when I was three. That sounds right.
A chubby little me, sitting on my mom's lap on our Nashvillie porch. Staring out at the stars, my mom drinking strong and sweet tea, and me sipping apple juice. I was easily fascinated by the lightning bugs, giggling as their little butts flashed on and off. Mom was humming softly, I'm not sure what it was. The mood was set, and at that moment, I knew.

I wanted to walk across america.

Just kidding.

This wasn't a dream of mine, to walk across the United States. It had never crossed my mind.

I remember talking to Matt in August of 2006, and he mentioned his and Lauren's idea. "What?" I said. "What are you talking about, walking across America?"

And he told me, and later in the month, Jonathan, Lauren, Matt and I sat in a parking lot near school and prayed. We prayed about a number of things, but the one that I remember the most is us praying for a fourth person for what was, at that time, their walk. As we sat in a circle, hands joined, all I could think of was "IT'S ME! I'm the fourth person!! ME! ME! ME!"

The entire semester went by, and it seemed I was wrong. I thought, perhaps, it could be me, but no one asked. I didn't have the courage to invite myself on a project they were all so devoted to. I started to think of studying abroad. Where would I go? What country would I visit? Who would I go with?

In January, as I agonized over my decision to study abroad, 3 people with 6 stinky feet approached me and asked me to go with them. It took another month of thinking, praying and searching before I decided.

It was never that my heart wasn't in it, that I wasn't passionate about going and taking this journey, meeting new people and changing lives as well as having mine changed. It was a question of is this for me, and for me now. And it is.

I'm walking across the United States, with three amazing people, and we're going to do amazing things...just you wait.

The Tale of a Man and his Dog

It all began on January 24 2004. Yes, there is an exact date. Well, it could have been the 25th, but I wrote the 24th down in my journal. It was the winter that Winter Blitz, a Christian convention I attended every year through high school, was in Louisville, Kentucky as opposed to Lexington. The fact that the city changed had nothing to do with the convention. It was the fact that there was a man there who caught my attention. Try as I may to find him, I still don't know his name to this day. All I know is that he was planning to walk across America and that I had never heard anything like it before. It was as though he had opened a window that I had never thought to look through before. Duh! Walk across America. It didn't sound impossible. In fact it sounded like a pretty sweet idea. Think about it...

WALK ACROSS AMERICA! As he announced himself, his plan and his reasons to the crowd I could tell that some people thought he was crazy, some were worried and gave their donations or best wishes and then there was me, the utterly confused and totally obsessively impressed. The man was older and seemed quite cute, content and CALM for someone about to travel 3,000 miles by foot with his dog as his number one companion. A table was set up outside of the convention center with the man's information, a donation box and a list of people who had volunteered to walk part of the stretch with him. After his announcement I left the center and just stared at his table. I gazed in wonder and disappointment at the huge map of his route and how it didn't pass through my small town in Kentucky. I stared at his long list of walking volunteers and debated whether to sign it or not. I guess I hadn't put much thought into the logistics of his journey such as where he would stay, how long it would take and the weather conditions he would have to face. All I could think about was "Oh my gosh, I HAVE TO GO TOO!" I had seriously considered asking him if he wanted another companion other than his dog. Don't get confused here...it wasn't that I wanted to steal or share this thunder. It was the idea of giving up EVERYTHING to go on a journey with nothing that excited me the most. I didn't need recognition, just the opportunity to do something so outrageous and worth-while for a good cause and spiritual satisfaction. I felt so ready right then and there to leave my youth leader, my friends, my family and GO.

I didn't leave my life to find the world of America. Not then anyway. A whirlwind of events happened in my life, both good and bad RIGHT after my encounter with the man and his dog that I never saw. Two months later when my 18th birthday came up I sat down and created a list of 18 things I wanted to accomplish before I die. Number 1: Walk across America. Without even thinking it was already on the paper and since then it's been a dream...an outrageous worth-while dream of mine to do what I thought at one time was the craziest thing I had ever heard. I never thought my dream would come as soon as this summer or with as many companions, but I am so psyched. It's time to leave everything behind, carry nothing and gain something new. This time...I'm ready!

In the beginning...

...there were these college students.

No, wait. My story begins actually a few years before that...

It was the summer after 7th grade. I was thirteen years old, or thereabouts. My Boy Scout troop was taking a bicycle trip along the Katy Trail in Missouri - 200 miles in five days. When you're thirteen, that can seem like a nearly impossible goal...but you know how it is that age. A bicycle means one thing, and one thing only: freedom. How could one resist? The trip was hot, it was dirty, it was exhausting...and I loved every second of it.

One of the things I remember most vividly was a stop we made in a small town - you know, one of those classic American small towns with a population of 350. There was a tiny grocery store a few feet off of the trail that we stopped at after a few long hours of riding in the rising heat. Some of us went inside, and behind the counter was an old woman, with silvery gray hair and a kind, wrinkled face. I don't remember anything about what she really looked like, what she said to me, or what the exact layout of the inside of the convenience store was - but I do remember I bought an ice cream bar.

For some reason, it was just one of those moments, an only-during-a-summer-in-America moment, the kind of moment that makes you feel nostalgic for a place you've never been before. Maybe it was the homey feel of the little town, or maybe it was my fascination that this store could exist with this woman inside of it that I had no clue about who she was or where she came from - what she wanted out of life, or even how life had let her down. I just remember thinking, somewhere along there, sitting by the side of the bike trail on a sweltering July day eating an ice cream bar from this store I knew I would never see again, I remember thinking, "So this is it. This is America."

...I guess it's a feeling that's just hard to describe. But it's one that has never really left me. The places I saw and the people I met on the Katy Trail filled me with an odd sense of patriotism, about how beautiful this country is and how interesting the people that make it up are. Ever since that trip, I've wanted to travel this country and really experience for myself what else is out there, how much it really has to offer...and what other grocery stores are waiting for me to buy ice cream from kind, elderly women.

Once I got a little older, and decided filmmaking was what I wanted to do with my life, I maintained this dream of travelling the country to make a documentary; I wanted to take a year off after I graduated to seriously explore. Maybe it would be just me and a car and a camera. I had no idea what the film was going to be about, but I knew it was a dream, and I also knew that there was no one else who was inclined to come with me...until I met Lauren.

When Lauren and I became friends sophomore year at Webster University, she came to me with a question. She said she had this idea about travelling cross-country to make a documentary, and she wanted to know if I might like to come.

Now I don't know about you, but I believe in God, and that, to me, was pretty much a slap on the back; a nudge in the right direction, if you will. So then there was me, and there was Lauren. The only thing was, Lauren wasn't keen on taking a car. She wanted to walk.

"Walk?!" I said.

"Yes, walk," she answered.

And that, as they say, was that.

I'll let Jonathan, Lauren, and Katelyn share their stories about how and why they are getting involved in this crazy project, but for me, it all comes back to that ice cream bar from that tiny grocery store in that little town. I want to recapture the feeling of that one American summer afternoon...the freedom, I suppose you could call it, of being out and experiencing a small part of this great country of ours.

More than eight years later, it seems as if my dream is finally getting ready to come true...