I just finished the book 'Wild' by Cheryl Strayed. It was an interesting book and now I want to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Anyway... books of people's life stories always confuse me and I start to think what a failure I must be. Cheryl for instance hikes the PCT to find herself and deal with some past events. She is out on the trail for a summer and what else is there to do but be with yourself. At the end of the book she talks about her life now and it all seems perfect. As if that hike changed her life to the point all of her other negative coping skills disappeared. Of course she is married to her perfect man with kids and the whole thing. Is her life really as great as she makes it out to be? Not to pick on Cheryl because all of these types of life finding books end the same. Why can't someone just say... yes, I did that and it changed my life but I still struggle... or life didn't quite turn out the way I thought but I have learned to cope and life is good. I would think after a life changing event like a hike on the PCT the world would be different... it is what I am noticing with my life on the road. Why the need to make it all seem so perfect... like if I went and hiked the PCT, for instance, next summer everything in my life would fall in place and I wouldn't have bad days or bad thoughts or loose days from depression or think about my body and food in a negative way.
I have had people ask me if I consider myself recovered from my Eating Disorder. I say no because recovered is such a permanent word. I feel I will be in recovery forever. Life happens, things happen, thoughts come about and yes, my first thought is my Eating Disorder. I may or may not act upon those thoughts but to me recovered means my Eating Disorder isn't there anymore. I can deal with life without ever thinking about depriving myself in some way shape or form. That I love my body no matter what I wear or what the media tells me. I don't have days where depression takes over or anxiety about the world. I would be able to live a 'normal' life... well, as normal as I would ever want my life to be. I guess 'normal' for me would mean being able to feel whatever the feelings may be, not to take out other people's actions on myself, treat food as what it is, a need for survival instead of something that I need to be allowed to have. My life can be exhausting. I can have a few good months and then out of the blue be knocked down and it will take a few months to get myself back to the point I was before. It is frustrating. I feel like a failure when I have to constantly go back to my team and each time I fear they won't be there anymore. They will give up because I just can't get it right.
I have also been asked when I will write a book about my life. How in the world do you pick out the moments to write about. I have over 30 years of life, drama, recovery not to mention my life on the road. What is it suppose to be... an encyclopedia of Jackie. Each moment creates the next and I still haven't figured it all out like it seems these other life changing books have done. Maybe I am missing something somewhere?? Maybe I want to much?? Who knows. Just something on my mind the past few days.
