A reading from Cheryl Strayed

Before this lecture I had never heard of Cheryl Strayed, though I had seen some media buzz about her bestseller Wild. After hearing her talk about her life leading up to the book, I was taken aback at how much she had overcome. I was moved by her powerful story and could relate to the intense closeness she had to her mother.
Immediately following the lecture I downloaded her book onto my kindle. The fact that the story is true, based off her real experiences only made me want to read it more. Her work is a lot like where I see my writing going. I loved how she intertwined nature into her plot, because really the setting itself was a strong character that helped her grow over time. In explaining how her book came about, she discussed some of the big lessons she learned along the way. She said "fear is a story we tell outselves." But it wasn't just her words that struck me, but the intensity she had behind it. She wasn't just making these things up to sell a good book, rather it was apparent that she had a series of life altering revelations that were so deep she felt compelled to share them. Thats what made her book so beautiful, it was raw, real and at times quite funny. She seemed like a woman who had really overcome a lot through her struggle and was so much stronger now that her struggle was almost laughable. She made a bunch of jokes at her own expense, which only made me fall in love with her move.
Because like my grandfather used to always say "you gatta laugh in life."

I loved when she said how often life sends you metaphors. Its so true, in your darkest hour it seems everywhere you look holds a message up need to hear to help you go on. She advocated the importance to be brave, to take risks and live fully. This stuck out in of of Strayed's other projects, a Column called Dear Sugar that was eventually turned into her accidental  book Tiny Beautiful Things. She wrote in a column addressed to a young girl to be brake enough to break your heart. She continued to write that you cannot convince people to love you because real love moves freely in both directions. I felt this was something I really needed to hear in my own process of growing up and looking for people to share my life with.
This is the kind of author I'd like to be one day, someone who inspires by sharing their own truth about life.