Timing is Everything

Book Synopsis

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and she would do it alone. 

Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. 

Book Review

I came across Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail back in 2012 when I was browsing through a magazine and read an excerpt from the novel. Something struck me and I knew I had to read the book. I got busy with school and life, but got the book for Christmas in 2013. I began reading it immediately, but found that I could not make it past the first chapter, not because it wasn't well written, but because I am very close with my mother and when reading about Cheryl's mother's death, I found myself unable to make it through without sobbing uncontrollably. I simply didn't feel strong enough to read it at that point, so I put it aside saving it for a later date. I finally picked up the book again in December 2014, read it and was irrevocably moved.

Wild beautifully portrays the deeply honest and humbling journey Cheryl takes along the Pacific Crest Trail to find herself after being lost for a long while. Her raw account of the personal struggles she faced and the road leading back to herself is inspired. It is rare to find writing as honest as Cheryl Strayed's in Wild and it is done exquisitely.

I would recommend this book to everyone, but particularly to those feeling lost or confused about their own life. I was feeling somewhat lost when I decided to pick up the book and give it another shot and it moved me to my core, creating a new found awareness on situations in my own life that I was struggling with. I believe that timing is everything in life and for me, this novel arrived right when I needed it.

Quotes

For those who want a small sneak peak into some of the wisdom Cheryl offers in Wild: 

"Fear to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me." 

"The universe, I'd learned, was never, ever kidding. It would take whatever it wanted and it would never give it back." 

"I'd finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out, when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in."