“Yo-yoing” a trail has always been something I’ve looked at with skepticism.

One of those, “Why would you do that to yourself?”

In thru-hiking, a yo-yo is when you hike a trail in one direction, and then turn around and hike it back: start to finish, finish to start - as one HUGE trip.

The yo-yo goes all the way down and then you pull it back up.

The closest I’ve ever come to doing this was on the Art Loeb Trail in North Carolina. I think calling the Art Loeb a thru-hike is a stretch (it’s 30 miles), and saying we yo-yoed the trail, in an effort to avoid a car shuttle, doesn’t carry anything near the weight of actually hiking hundreds or even thousands of miles and then turning around and walking back.

I can’t really wrap my mind around yo-yoing one of the triple crown trails, but people do.

I finished my software development bootcamp at the end of April. I reached the finish line. It was a lot of work and I’m proud of the things I learned and the skills I’ve developed. I also just accepted a position to be a teaching assistant at Upright.

I’m viewing this opportunity as a chance to yo-yo my bootcamp experience. I did the bootcamp as a student, now I’m going to do it again but this time as part of the teaching staff.

I just finished week one as a TA. It was a familiar trail, but I’m heading in a different direction than last time.

I’m excited to “re-hike” this path.

The experience will allow me to be re-exposed to the course material and continue to grow as a developer. Plus, I love teaching and am thrilled to help and encourage others.

I’m on a new journey, and I’m excited.

This coming summer is shaping up to be a blur of coding, and trails up 4,000 foot mountains.

I’ve reached some new summits over the last month and I’m excited to keep climbing to find new ones.