{"id":4090,"date":"2015-09-30T15:21:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T19:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=4090"},"modified":"2015-10-07T11:09:28","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T15:09:28","slug":"oct-1-hard-way-home-offers-lessons-on-moving-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2015\/09\/30\/oct-1-hard-way-home-offers-lessons-on-moving-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Oct. 1 ‘Hard Way Home’ offers lessons on moving on"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kori<\/a>In the spring of 2012, Kori Feener began her 2,000 mile thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT). She began her journey with the goal of letting go of events and people from her life. As she progressed from a difficult past, she came into contact with individuals she never expected to meet, some of whom changed her life.<\/p>\n

Hiking was not always an interest of hers and the dream of hiking the AT was not hers originally, said Feener in a phone interview. She and an ex-boyfriend had planned to do the trip together. With the demise of her relationship, she commandeered the dream and challenged the thru-hike on her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me think about life in more present terms, and that includes everything: film making, my career,\u201d Feener said.<\/p>\n

She documented the six-month journey in her 2013 film \u201cHard Way Home,\u201d being shown at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, in Steinman’s Brinser Lecture Hall. Following the screening, a question-and-answer session with the director will be held.<\/p>\n

\n

It made me think about life in more present terms.”<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On her web biography, Feener expresses a hope that she can teach people to \u201chike their own hike,\u201d which she translates to live your own life. Since its release, the movie won\u201cBest Feature\u201d at the Chattanooga Film Festival in 2014. She has screened it at seven film festivals and about as many colleges. The colleges where she has shown the documentary all share one characteristic: the Appalachian Trail runs through the area.<\/p>\n

The film also is available for rent or purchase on video on demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is an energetic, young presence and I look forward to her being here on campus,\u201d said Jesse Waters, director of Bowers Writers House, which hosts the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only do I find her documentary extremely interesting, in terms of one person\u2019s journey through family trauma and having an experience in nature that is cathartic and rehabilitating,\u201d Waters said. \u201cBut she met people along this journey who are all fascinating individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a graduate at Emerson College, Feener\u2019s impending thesis prompted the hike. Her original plan, to create a fictional story, was altered when she realized she could combine her dream of hiking the trail and her class work.\u00a0 She began to feel as though she needed to go on the hike for herself, to get a change of pace and scenery, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to, very specifically, hold this event to support what I knew the Momentum students were going to experience in nature, with their hiking experience,\u201d Waters said of E-town College program that brings first-generation college students to campus to get them used to this new idea.<\/p>\n

Waters hoped that the Momentum students, who had recently been on their own hike, would be able to make connections and learn from her experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to provide an interdisciplinary venue for presentation, performance, expression and study, so we bring in a large variety of presenters, actors, composers, genetic scientists, physicists, historians, accountants, sociologists,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n

All Bowers events are intended to give students an opportunity to discover areas of interest outside of their academic major, Bowers said, stressing that it is important for students to learn how to be successful, as well as to find \u201cwhat they want to be happy about.\u201d Empowering students to discover passions is a goal of all Bowers Writers House events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask [presenters] to leave their academics at the door and bring in their passion and professionalism,\u201d Waters said. Feener was able to combine the two in her documentary. In completing her graduate thesis, she accomplished a personal dream and started the healing process. The story she tells in her film is one of love, loss and lessons learned. When she shares it with college students, she hopes they learn to move on from stress and painful experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day I hiked, it was rainy and gross, and I couldn\u2019t see more than 10 feet in from of me, and I loved it that day,\u201d Feener said. \u201cI think, if you love it in those conditions you are going to love it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about the film, contact Bowers Writers House at 717-689-3945 or writershouse@etown.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 2012, Kori Feener began her 2,000 mile thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT). She began her journey with the goal of letting go of events and people from her life. As she progressed from a difficult past, she came into contact with individuals she never expected to meet, some of whom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":4107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4090"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4104,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090\/revisions\/4104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}