Jeanette Walls, a women with a unique story from the past

Jeanette Walls came to Emens Auditorium to speak with the freshmen class about the common reader for this semester, the Glass Castle. Walls shared many inspirational stories with us that related to our daily lives. She wanted to come share her story in person with the students of Ball State and to give her readers a chance to meet her and ask her questions about her childhood and her book. The question and answer session consisted of about twenty students being able to ask Jeanette Walls any question they wanted to about her life or her story. Walls answered every question with extreme detail and made sure we understood exactly what she meant. Walls was extremely honored to speak with us about her book, and you could tell that she was being genuine and honest with everything she spoke about. She told us about all of her childhood stories and how they impacted her life. Walls made it a point to tell us that she is who she is today because of the way she was raised. She was raised in a poor, unstable environment where she learned to be self-sufficient and do things on her own. Walls turned her bad childhood tragedies into positive memories that have made her the successful woman she is today. If it would not have been for all of the hardships, Jeanette would not have learned to have hopes and dreams for the future. Walls clearly remembers everything that happened when she was younger. She remembers how she got burned when she was three years old to how bad of an alcoholic her father was. She has these memories, but she also tells them with full detail. It would be hard for us to remember stories like this, but she lived a tough life in which she had to learn to do a lot on her own. This self-sufficiency led her to remember all of her childhood stories better. Walls spoke to us in a way that made us want to listen to her. She did not try to impress us with big words and complicated stories. She stuck to the stories that she knew we would want to listen to and made them funny, so we would enjoy ourselves. Walls was herself on stage and I really enjoyed listening to what she was telling us. I liked how she stated that nobody is perfect. She referred to everybody as not "silky," but "textured." Walls said that our texture within us is our flaws, and our imperfections are what learn from. Everybody has imperfections and it was nice to hear her talk about it, because sometimes people feel like they are the only ones who have flaws. Hearing Jeanette Walls speak was inspiring and made me think more positively about life in general.