I was on vacation in Wyoming without a book to read on the flight home. My friend happened to have "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed and gave it to me for my flight reading. I read the first 60 pages or so on the flight home, but once I was home it sat on my bookshelf for five months. Yesterday, I decided to pick it up and start reading it again. And I couldn't put it down. By 2 a.m. I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and fell asleep with 11 pages until the end. This morning, finishing those 11 pages was the first thing I did. 

Astonishing. Absurd. Brave. Insane. Admirable. Fierce. Tough. Fearless. I could go on because this book includes it all and more. If there were a word for braver than brave, this would categorize "Wild," Strayed's 1,100+ mile hike, and anyone else with the guts to take on a thru-hike. As a midwest native, I didn't know thru-hiking was something people did period, let alone a lifelong dream of some. But know that I do know, I can't help but respect people with the audacity to take it on. Her memoir almost makes me intrigued to take on a feat myself. Although I don't know that I could take on the intense miles, Strayed did, a shorter hike for a week or so would be an incredible experience. 

Strayed sacrificed hygiene, showers, toilets, toenails! and so much more to hike the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) at the age of 26. That's another fact that astounds me - that's only 4 years older than I am! I'm not ready to hike on my own for 2-3 months, and I'm pretty sure I won't be ready in 4 years either. I don't think I'll ever be ready for that, but Strayed carried Monster - her 50-70 pound backpack - across the desert, snow, mountains, rocks and 100+ temperatures.

Strayed's brute honesty and transparency about not only the difficulty of the hike, but even more so, why she decided to take the journey, her mother's death, her drug use, etc. It makes her so relatable. She's not some superhuman woman that prepared for this experience for years. She was no bodybuilder or perfect person with her life together and this hike was just a break from all that. No, this was a journey to find something she was missing. She was just like the rest of us, searching for something, for ourselves, for something to grab on to. And she found such strength. 

I'd recommend "Wild" to any woman - we can do anything we want to. Being a woman is not a hindrance in any way. We can do anything we want to do. We can't forget that.