Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

Description

In 2008, Aspen Matis left behind her quaint Massachusetts town for a school two thousand miles away. Eager to escape her sheltered childhood, Aspen wanted to were obliterated when Aspen was raped by a fellow student. Aspen was confused, ashamed, and uncertain about how to deal with a problem that has become common on campuses throughout the country. Her desperation growing, she made a bold decision; she dropped out and sought healing on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail leading from Mexico to Canada. In this important and inspiring memoir, Aspen chronicles an ambitious five-month trek that was as dangerous as it was transformative. Forced to survive on her own for the first time, she found herself on a new expedition: to confront-and overcome the confines that had bound her since long before college. A nineteen-year-old girl alone and adrift, Aspen conquered desolate mountain passes and met rattlesnakes, bears, and fellow desert pilgrims. Among the snowcaps and the forests of America's West, she blazed a new path to the future she wanted-and reclaimed it. What emerges is an unflinching portrait of a girl in the aftermath of rape. Told with elegance and suspense, Girl in the Woods is a beautifully rendered story of emotional and physical boundaries eroding to reveal the truths that lie beyond the edges of the map. ISBN:9780062390615