 Media Credit: Ian Thomas and Ryan Littman-Quinn
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For the better part of her adult life, Jeannette Walls had a secret. She hid it from her friends and coworkers. She changed the subject whenever people talked about family. She felt uncomfortable, sometimes even among friends. She was afraid that people would find out.
That secret - the trials of her challenging childhood - is now the topic of a national bestseller. And to her friends, coworkers, and millions of readers nationwide, Walls has become a symbol of perseverance and hope.
In light of her accomplishments as an author, as a journalist, and most of all, as someone who never gave up, Walls told her story to the Boston College community at First Year Academic Convocation on Thursday. As part of the fourth annual "Conversations in the First Year," the 2,250 incoming freshmen read Walls' memoir, The Glass Castle, prior to convocation.
"Writing the book [The Glass Castle] was a horrible, fabulous, excruciating, and cathartic experience," she said in an interview before her address. "We all know things about ourselves that we think we don't know."
Inspired by her mother's advice to simply "tell the truth," Walls delves into memories that are painful, tragic, shocking, and heartwarming. Her checkered past begins in the southwest region of the country, marked by frequent moves as her father bounced from job to job. Whether the family left town on the run from the law, in search of gold, or just to try something new, the one thing consistent in Walls' nomadic early years was her bond with her father.
Rex Walls had his flaws, she concedes, but it was his strong spirit that kept the family together and determined, always striving toward the ultimate goal: building the glass castle. Hope came as a set of blueprints, a promise that one day, the Walls family would move into a fanciful, glass, solar-powered castle. And although the house itself never materialized, Walls sees it now as a symbol of her father's message to dream big.
"At this point, it's neither frustration nor forgiveness that I'm dealing with toward my father," she said. "It's understanding. He's a flawed man, but that he had as much good in him as he did was truly remarkable."
When sober, Rex Walls was a teacher, a companion, and a dreamer. He cultivated his children's imaginations, and he taught them the important lessons of looking out for oneself, caring for one's family, and confronting challenges. He never settled for the easy or the ordinary, and he was always curious - these traits he passed down to his children.
2008 Woodie Awards
