Wild: A Journey From Lost to Found

The book I am reading for my ISP project is Wild by Cheryl Strayed. This book is a memoir about Cheryl Strayed's solo hike across the Pacific Crest Trail, starting in the Mojave Desert. It also explains what lead her to make this decision, which was the death of her mother, from lung cancer, the disengagement with stepfather, the distance between her siblings and herself, the divorce with husband, and her heroin use. She decided to make this journey because she wanted to find herself within her challenges and grief. The first few chapters are about her decision to take this hike, her starting the hike, and the friends she is starting to make on the Trail. In the short term, I think that Cheryl with meet new people, who have different experiences from her own, leading to new friendships. I also think that she is going to use these new experiences (hers and theirs) to look at her grief and challenges in a new light. In the long term, she could use these experiences to not only make new connections with people on the trail, but skills to use after she is done the hike. I think this hike will give her life skills, that she will use for the rest of her life, like personal relationship skills, and ways to deal with grief in a positive way.

This book is a memoir, so it really gives me a look at Cheryl Strayed's mind, and her thoughts when writing this book. I do not find it difficult to sympathize with her view of the world, because even though it is flawed I know that these are her opinions, first hand. She may have poor decision making skills, the heroin use, but this book is about how she is using this experience to find herself. I think that anyone with any experience of hardship (big or small), can find a way to relate to this book. Cheryl pushes through, when she loses her boot she "considered [her] options. There was only one, [she] knew. There was always only one. To keep walking." (1). This shows her perseverance, something anyone can connect to their life.

I think that the author wanted everyone to be able to connect this story with aspects in their life, the personal relationships and grief within her life can be easily applied to any of our lives. People can use this book as a learning tool to deal with grief, Cheryl shows us how she took her bad experience (mother's death), dealt with it in an unhealthy way (heroin), but now she is trying to make it into a positive thing. She teaches us that it is important to realize that bad things happen, and in effect we cannot deal with them in a negative way. It is a pretty easy book to connect to my life, I think that everyone wants to do what Cheryl did. We all just trying to find out who we are, and the way she did it might be extreme but I could easily connect it to my own life. It is about starting new things, and building who you are, to help you realize who you are.

This book is helping me reflect on myself, by looking at how I deal with schoolwork and all the elements in my life. I am learning that I need to try and use some of the techniques Cheryl is using, and try to deal with my problems in a productive way. This book is an interesting book, so I have not had to use reading strategies. Once there is a boring part I will try and push through, like Cheryl Strayed is doing in the book. I think the author does a great job connecting her life experiences into a motivational book, about trying to push through the "hard times".

1. Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. (First Vintage Books Edition, April 2013). November 02, 2016.

Wheeler, Sara. "Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed – review." The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/06/wild-cheryl-strayed-review. November 02, 2016.

Shapiro, Dani. ""Wild": a hiking memoir by Cheryl Strayed." The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/books/review/wild-a-hiking-memoir-by-cheryl-strayed.html. November 02, 2016.

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