Wild: She Got Lost on the Pacific Coast Trail and Found Herself Again

This book couldn't have entered my life at a more appropriate time.  No, I did not go backpacking across the Pacific Coast Trail, but have been feeling out of my element and a lot of life changes have transpired (ie. moving to a different city and leaving a city I have known as home my entire 29 years).  So here I was on my one and only week off this summer, laying in the sun along the beautiful west Michigan coastline and I was enthralled.

Cheryl had quite the extraordinary childhood.  Her father was a deadbeat alcoholic who was abusive to her mother and her siblings. Luckily he did them all a favor and abandoned  them, which did leave some internal wounds she would need to sort out in her adulthood.  This left her loving mother to raise Cheryl, her brother, and sister.  The 4 of them lived in the country and grew their food, sewed their clothes, and enjoyed the simple life indeed.  Later her mother met Eddie and he became the father to take them fishing and other things fathers typically do.  It was a charmed life.

Cheryl got older and went to college which encouraged her mother to do the same.  The two ended up going to the same college which sadly got cut short.  Cheryl's mother was diagnosed with Cancer and when she died, this took a part of Cheryl away that she couldn't get back no matter how hard she tried, and believe me she tried everything.

Following the death of her mother, her little family fell apart and she couldn't keep them together.  Add to that the fact that she no longer felt the same about her husband, and Cheryl slowly fell into a horribly dark path.  She threw herself into bed after bed with different men and went as far as heroin to get herself to feel anything.  She hit rock bottom and then got inspired to hike the PCT (Pacific Coast Trail) by herself to find who she was again.  This caused quite a bit of backlash from friends and her ex husband as going backpacking was one thing, but backpacking thousands of miles as a female is quite another situation altogether.

Cheryl did it anyway though and learned so much about life and who she was capable of being. After all, there were so many obstacles to go through such as wild animals, extreme weather from all sides of the spectrum, sketchy individuals, and being so very alone surrounded by mountains and sky.

This book captured her journey in a way that had you walking alongside her as she evolved.  It would be a wonderful read for anyone needing to be inspired to expand your horizons and really live your life.  We all get lost sometimes, but it is up to us on how we find ourselves again.