The lessons of a journey

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey
Reader Staff

Local author Sharon Kreider is ready to share her story — at least a portion of it — from years of her life that formed the foundation for how she’d approach all the years to follow.

“It really transformed my whole life,” she told the Reader. “It was my coming-of-age experience.”

Sharon Kreider.

That experience was leaving her small, Canadian hometown at 22 years old to travel, solo, across Europe and Asia in the late 1970s. She tells the story of those three years in her forthcoming memoir Wandering: A long way past the past. The first copies of the book — limited-edition hardcovers — will be available during a book signing at Sandpoint Hot Yoga on Saturday, Oct. 1.

“It was a conscious decision that I made on my own; but, truthfully, I was very naive and I didn’t know what I was doing,” Kreider said of her choice to travel the world at such a young age. “I landed in England without a plan. I took a one-way ticket and just went from there.”

Kreider released her first book, a work of fiction titled Sylvie, in 2021. She’s been planning to tell the true story of her travels her entire life, but only began writing Wandering about a decade ago. While those close to her encouraged her to write about her globetrotting as soon as her adventure had concluded, she held off.

“I still had a lot of important growing up and growing into myself that I needed to do,” she said.

She’s led a full life since then, working as a mental health therapist and suicide prevention trainer, and leaning into writing and poetry in her retirement. Kreider is the kind of author who can hear stories asking to be written; her creations often originate as a sort of voice, compelling her to give it written life. Wandering was one of those voices.

“That voice got louder and louder until I had no choice — I had to write down that internal flood of story and memory,” she said.

Writing down her own memories proved to be more complex than she originally thought. The world’s boundaries and place names have changed much in the four decades since her travels, so accurately identifying the settings of her stories proved to be an interesting hurdle.

“There were a lot of challenges,” Kreider said, “but that was a big one for sure.”

Wandering, a memoir by Sharon Kreider.

While Wandering primarily tells the story of Krieder’s three years abroad, she intertwines snapshots of her childhood, painting at least a partial picture of the circumstances and experiences leading up to her early 20s. The result is a book that Kreider said “is a story of courage, love, overcoming adversity [and] forgiveness.” She said her travels, and the interactions she had with people from various cultures, showed her that people are “more similar than different.”

Asked about the level of vulnerability that it requires to share such a personal story, Kreider admitted that releasing Wandering to the world can, at times, feel “scary.” She said that imposter syndrome — that is, an urge to ask herself “who do you think you are?” — has crept up on her several times since becoming a published author.

“That sinister voice, questioning whether I’m a worthy enough writer or author or poet … The more I’ve been thinking about it, ‘who do you think you are?’ is a great question that I should be asking myself more and more often,” she said, “because that question keeps me awake to the truth, and to the infinite possibilities of my creativity.”

She said that she keeps a quote from poet Amanda Gorman above her desk that reads: “There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

“For me, that really embodies what this whole book is for me,” Kreider said. “It’s taken me a long time to write this book, and it is vulnerable to my core; but, at the same time, I think it unites me to the world. All of us go through hardship. All of us go through difficulty. All of us are unique.”

Kreider will be signing limited edition hardcover copies of Wandering: A long way past the past on Saturday, Oct. 1 at Sandpoint Hot Yoga (1243 Michigan St.) from 1-4 p.m. The yoga studio will also be running a 50% off punch card special during the book signing event.

To learn more, visit the author’s website at sharonkreider.com.