Journal 6

Character Sketch


-Doug Mathis
-Age 18
-Senior in high school. A-B range student without generally trying. Has never been very interested in school, he has always learned more from doing and trying things himself. Everyone expects him to go to college and he'll get into some decent schools. He doesn't feel that four more years at least of school is worth all of the time, money, and energy.
-Always has been a decent athlete but has never had the motivation to go out for a team. He enjoys pushing himself physically. Long runs nearly every day. Hiking tougher and higher places on the weekend. Skiing harder and steeper slopes each winter.
-He is always turning down requests from friends and family to go and do his own things. He would rather hike a ridge by himself then go to the movies with a group of buds. He would rather spend the whole weekend backpacking rather than visiting relatives with the rest of his family.
-It is not that Doug does not enjoy his family and friends, they have just started to become mundane to him. The same things happened in his life for eighteen years. The same movie theater. The same houses to hang out at. The same birthday dinners for each of his three siblings, all younger than him. The same routine each Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. He desperately wants to experience new things and everyone around him seems fine with their routines.
-He knows college is yet another routine middle America now does. He can see the path most people he knows takes, including the future path's of many of his friends: highschool, college, career, wife, kids, retirements, death.
-This traditional pattern of life doesn't appeal to him in the least bit. He wants to see more, experience more, know more, and he knows the only way to do this is to leave and experience things for himself.
-He is a personable person and easy to talk to but he has found that people simply talk about the same things again and again. He wants intellectually stimulating conversations and he has never found that in the classroom.

I haven't fully decided what Doug will look like but I know I want him to be very average. Average height, weight, build, exct. There isn't much that sets him apart from millions of other 18 year old white boys in America. This is part of his problem. He is very much a part of Middle White America in many ways and it traps him. He yearns to "spread his wings" and leave the binds of society.

He has recently begun to find inspiration from stories, namely text. He has begun to read London, Thoreau, and Muir as well as contemporary travel writing. He has begun to talk to travelers online who share their travel experiences and encourages Doug to live for himself. He finds inspiration from these people and knows that if they can do it, so can he.