"Wild" author Cheryl Strayed speaks during the John Cooper School's annual Signatures Author Series event.[/caption]Cheryl Strayed, author of the New York Times best-seller “Wild,” was the featured speaker at the 12th annual Signatures Author Series hosted by The John Cooper School Dec. 2 at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center.
Strayed said she first read about the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail on the back cover of a book she picked up at an R.E.I. in Minnesota. She hiked the PCT in 1995, three and a half years after her mother’s death. “Wild,” which chronicled her journey, was published in 2012.
“I learned things on the trail that serve me today and will serve me for the rest of my life,” Strayed said. “I’m so nostalgic for the trail, whenever I have the opportunity to talk about it, or when I meet people who have hiked not just the [Pacific Crest Trail] but any long trail, you forget the difficult times and you remember the glory of it—the beauty, and the silence and the feeling you have when you’re doing something like that.”
Strayed, who is now the mother of two, said she encourages her children and others to take the hike themselves.
“I can only hope that I’m raising my kids in a way that will compel them to have the strength of character that it takes to decide to go on the journey,” she said. “I, of course, would be incredibly worried about them, and I would have a GPS implanted into their scalp.”
After becoming a best-selling book, “Wild” was adapted into a movie in 2014, starring Reese Witherspoon as Strayed. The book and film have gained so much notoriety that people all over the world have chosen to hike the PCT. “Wild” was even referenced in the “Gilmore Girls” revival, which is now on Netflix.
“I was like, ‘Now my life is complete,’” Strayed said. “Characters in TV shows read books, and how flattering that [the "Gilmore Girls" character] was reading that. So it’s Thanksgiving weekend, and my daughter and I decide let’s skip ahead and watch the ‘Year in the Life,’ just so I can see the book in the [series]. All of a sudden, it’s not just reading the book—it’s part of the story line. I was moved to tears.”
Strayed said she waited until 2008 to begin writing “Wild” because she wanted the story to be told after she had accomplished more in her life and moved on from that journey.
“It’s really—aside from having my kids and marrying my husband—the best thing I’ve ever done for myself,” Strayed said. “It was not only fun, it was incredibly hard. So often those things that are big challenges obviously end up being the most important things in your life.”
A portion of the proceeds from the event will go to the Montgomery County Memorial Library System, event co-chairs Denise Hayes and Meg Garrison said.
