Discovery and adventure

Morgan Rooney
MSMU Class of 2020

(4/2018) When thinking of all the books I’ve ever read, which there have been a lot of over the years, the ones that I’ve enjoyed and fallen into the deepest parts of my heart are the ones that truly make me think. I like stories that make me think deeper on a personal level about my own life and the decisions I make every day. A book that stands out to me when thinking back is a memoir, Wild, written by Cheryl Strayed.

Firstly, the whole story of this book was quite intriguing, even before I picked it up to read. To summarize briefly, this is the true story of a woman, who in 1995 when going through a variety of hardships in her life, decides to drop everything to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT. The PCT is a long-distance trail that stretches 2,659 miles from Southern California all the way to British Columbia. She does this to be independent, to find herself and to deal with those personal issues she had been combating.

As someone who finds great joy in outdoor activities such as hiking and camping, just a documentation of someone’s long hiking trip would have been intriguing to me, however, the deeper reasoning behind the hike made me think about my own life choices. I read this book while still a junior in high school. This was the year when I was just being told for the first time that I needed to figure out what I wanted to do. It’s definitely scary being told that when you are only sixteen. I didn’t even know what I would be doing that weekend, yet I had to begin choosing where I wanted to further my education and what area of study I would want to pursue once I got there. Of course, it wasn’t quite as dire of a decision as I made it seem in my head, but it felt as if I was trying to map out my entire life without knowing where my destination was.

Even though Cheryl Strayed, the author of Wild, made a drastic decision, her story helped me to realize that nothing is set in stone and we can always alter our lives where we see fit when things aren’t working out the way we want them too. Not long before her hike, Cheryl had gone through a divorce, her mother had passed away, and she was suffering from some poor decisions she had made in response. She saw that change was needed for her own wellbeing, so she underwent that change. I find stories where people change their own lives so inspiring because sometimes that’s everything we need to hear. Change is possible and it’s something we can all do to improve our lives.

Minimalism is another topic that this memoir made me think about. She left on this hike, which would last months in a variety of different weather conditions and climates, with only what she could fit in her backpack. No, living out of a backpack is not the most comfortable life for anyone. To be limited to only a number of shirts and socks sounds like it wouldn’t be the most pleasant experience, but it made me think about all that I have, and how much importance all those things actually have to me. Of course, I enjoy all of the little luxuries I have, but I don’t actually need most of them for my survival or wellbeing. Even if you don’t want to give up anything, or reduce yourself to minimalism, it is important not to forget about what’s important and what’s not in the big picture.

Who doesn’t enjoy a story involving an adventure? Non-fiction accounts of things that actually happened are especially intriguing to me. Hearing of the journeys of others only inspires you to create one of your own. I think I can speak for the majority of the population when I say that by the end of my life, I would like to have some good stories to tell. I’d love to spend the last moments of my life just reflecting on the moments that made my life worth living. I want to be able to look back and think, "Wow! I did some cool things back in the day." We all want to make the most out of life and encounter many little (or bigger) adventures of our own to make our lives worthwhile and make us feel like we’ve accomplished something. This story was a true push for me to actually make one of those big decisions that would alter my life to begin making it my own. It was just what I needed to read when I was sixteen, just to make me reflect on what’s important and what I want from life, so I can do my best to make it happen.

The amazing thing about this book is that I felt as if I grew with the author and the protagonist as I progressed through the chapters. At the beginning of the story, she was struggling, as most of us do at some point in our lives. She did not know what she wanted or where her life would go as she had experienced a variety of tragedies she wasn’t ready to take on. Life, she found, doesn’t always wait for us to be ready before it throws us a new challenge—sometimes these challenges change our lives completely, or even threaten to break us. She didn’t break, though; instead, she took a step back and decided to restart. Through her journey of self-discovery on the Pacific Crest Trail, she came to know herself and was able to start her life fresh, free from the difficulties of her past. Her journey made her stronger, both physically and mentally, as we all hope our own journeys will do to ourselves.

Read other articles by Morgan Rooney