“It took me almost two thousand miles in the woods to see I had to do some hard work that wasn’t simply walking—that I needed to begin respecting my own body’s boundaries. I had to draw clear lines. Ones that were sound in my mind and therefore impermeable, and would always, no matter where I walked, protect me. Moving forward, I wanted rules.First—when I felt unsafe I’d leave, immediately. The first time, not the tenth time. Not after a hundred red flags smacked in wind violently, clear as trail signs pointing the way to SNAKES. Not after I’d been bitten—the violation. If I wasn’t interested, I would reject the man blatantly.”
Aspen Matis“The small word, “No.” I’d see its deity.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“I wanted him to look at me like maybe I was magic.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“All I could think as he was speaking was that, if he touched me at all, all the miles I’d walked, the pain I’d felt, the beauty I’d drunken like milk, like good wine making me happy, the four million steps I’d taken, would all add up to nothing. They’d be stolen.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“Chinese proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This journey had begun with the coercion of my body, with my own wild hope.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“Each year, Gracie Henderson moons a thousand strangers, collects their shocked faces in an annual photo album.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“But the truth was stranger than an aimless road, it always was.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“When I felt strongly I would say it strongly.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“I felt unready to hold myself responsible for the decision if I slept with him”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“I was going to mean what I said, to be direct and firm.I found my moleskin notebook and on the page behind the pages addressed to Never-Never and my family—two unsent letters—I wrote: I am the director of my life.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir“After twelve years of trying, I just decided to stop missing.”
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir