The book I chose to read for the first third of this course is My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem. The title of book immediately caught my eye when I was looking at the list because having moved around a lot throughout my life, it feels like I've been "on the road" for most of my life. After starting the book and learning more about her experiences, I learned that her idea of life "on the road" is much more literal than mine. In the very first chapter, she tells the reader that she has spent almost her entire life traveling constantly and letting the road carry her along. This certainly made me rethink my idea of being "on the road". While I've moved plenty of times and been overseas and back, I've spent at least two years in every house and apartment I've lived in and I've always felt that I could call them home. Gloria, on the other hand, was taught by her father to see the road as its own destination.
I've really enjoyed reading this book altogether, but I found chapter two, in particular, to be very engaging and insightful. She begins the chapter discussing how her view of her father as a 'rootless wanderer' made her want to be the opposite. She talks about longing for an adulthood with 'one job, one home, and one vacation a year', the opposite of what she grew up with. I can certainly relate to this sentiment to a certain extent. Moving around a lot throughout my childhood impacted me in many ways, not all positive. I've always seen myself settling down in one place and raising my kids in that one place up until they left for college. But the turn this chapter took has me questioning my own thoughts. There was one line in particular that really spoke to me: "I confused growing up with settling down". And from there, the story of her adult life on the road begins. I'm really inspired and moved by the courage it must have taken for her to leave an engagement in order to seek adventure and new life on the move. And I'm inspired as well by the wide variety of places she's visited and experiences she's had. I'm now finding myself with a much longer list of places I'd like to see one day, all thanks to the stories told in this book. I'm very excited to keep reading and learn more about her.
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