Jeannette Walls: An Inspired Person

            Last night I went to see Jeannette Walls, author of “The Glass Castle,” this year’s Freshman Common Reader, speak. When I heard at orientation that we would be reading “The Glass Castle” I was more excited than I had been throughout the entire two-day orientation process. I was that much more excited to learn that Jeannette Walls herself would be coming to Ball State University to speak to us about her life and her book. I had previously read “The Glass Castle” as Summer reading for my high school Freshman English class and I fell in love with it. It amazed me that someone who grew up in such poor conditions could come out on top in such a big way. The book inspired me in many ways, coming from a background of living with a single mother who also happened to be an alcoholic. I was never as poor (or “po” as Walls said, “too poor to afford the o and r”) as Jeannette and her family, but it was still a depressing time in my life.

This book was easily one of the greatest assigned readings I have ever read. Going into Emens, all of the excitement came rushing back. I don’t know what I was expecting at that moment, but I know it was fulfilled. Jeannette Walls never once seemed as though she felt pity about her life, all the anecdotes she told were presented in a way that seemed upbeat and humorous. She even told one story about her alcoholic father where she was afraid of the “demon” under her bed. Her father told her to look the “demon” straight in the eyes and tell it she’s not afraid. She says how she took this advice from her father, from when she was five-years-old and frightened of what was lurking under the bed, and applied it to life as a whole. Never have I seen someone so positive about such negative times in their lives, who can look back and think about things their parents did that may seem atrocious to most but be able to accept the way they were. Jeannette Walls has been an inspiration to me since the first time I read her book four years ago, and she will continue to be an inspiration.