Initial Jitters

So I've decided that for my final walk I will be making a pilgrimage from my family home in Denfield Ontario, which is north of London to Point Edward, just beside Sarnia. The pilgrimage from my home to my destination will be roughly 90 km. It will take an estimated 18 hours of walking at a decent pace. The reason for this pilgrimage is to see my Nana. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the summer, and given months as an expected limit to her time left alive. While at school there is almost no time to go home let alone get to Sarnia to see her. Besides, my grandmother is quite stubborn and won't tell us much about her illness. I want to go and see her, potentially for the last time. Over the past few years at University I have grown increasingly distant from my grandparents, but I love them deeply and want them to know that. I doubt that Nana would condone this pilgrimage...in fact I imagine she would be opposed to it for safety reasons. But I am going to do this.

It is a frightening prospect in some ways, walking 90 kilometres in solitude along back roads so as to not get caught for hitchhiking accidentally. I don't necessarily think that people will understand why I am doing this, especially my own family. Pilgrimages are a personal matter. I want to do this for me, and I want to do this for Nana. I don't know what I will find on the way to Point Edward, and whether it will be good, bad, angering or painful. I might have life altering revelations or just end up with sore feet. Either way, this is something I must do and am both excited for and apprehensive about. As I sit here typing, my back is sore and I am just getting over a bad cold. Hopefully I can muster the strength to get through this pilgrimage to my goal. I can't wait to stand there at Nana's house on Michigan Ave. and tell her that I love her, and that the walk was worth every step.