For many people, hiking the Appalachian Trail is the culmination of a lifelong dream. There may be issues that they don't want to face, they may be grieving the loss of somebody. For many, the trail is spiritual in nature. For Stephanie Lorenze, eating unlimited pizza was her initial motivation. Despite this unlikely catalyst, Stephanie grew to love the trail and everything on it.

She faced doubters at the outset, yet she pushed on, confidence growing in her own abilities to complete the journey.

She chose to define her own life and didn't permit the negativity to deflect her from the goal of standing on that brown sign at the top of Katahdin. In the end, she had the perfect answer to everybody who doubted that she would be able to get to the end.

If you'd like to contact Stephanie, her Facebook profile is https://www.facebook.com/steph.lorenze