Topic of Choice 1

1. Writing the essay on the experiences of hikers on the Appalachian Trail during Covid-19 was not an easy task. I had a hard time writing this essay because of my lack of knowledge on the Appalachian Trail. Since I had never read blogs from trail hikers, I had to spend a good amount of time researching and reading different articles and blogs in order to even begin my essay. After my extensive searching for different blogs written by hikers, I finally had a better understanding of why people hiked the Appalachian Trail. I learned that many of them hiked this trail in order to get away from life and develop a better connection with God and nature. A lot of the hikers wrote about how they were super isolated from the world and so covid had minimal impact on them individually. Also, this trail allowed them to connect with their religion even more or they were able to find their God and establish a new life for when they leave the trail. I find it interesting how people are able to find their God by being isolated on a trail and that they write about their experiences so others can read about their spiritual journeys. After reading about the different journeys these hikers went on, I felt like I was able to write a pretty decent essay about their experiences. However, even though I believe that my final essay was pretty good, I must admit that I had a few people read over it so that I could get feedback on how to make it better. The people that read over my essay gave me great advice and they helped me make connections and write about key points that I had originally missed. Since I had peers read over my essay, I had to write 2 rough drafts before submitting my final one.