Embracing the Journey: Learning to Grow When Life Doesn’t Work Out as Planned

by Sarah Styf

Before Sarah Styf turned eighteen, she was moved across the country four times, living in five states in four different time zones before she left her parents’ home in Michigan for four years of college in Nebraska. As an adult, she and her husband started their family in Indiana, then chose to spend six years in Southeast Texas, before a significant life-changing event sent them back to the Midwest. There have been two constants throughout Sarah’s faith and change.

One of the ways she coped with change over the years was writing. After nearly a decade of blogging, Sarah noticed a common theme throughout her life is a series of unexpected events, a blind journey through the challenges of being a human, raising children, maintaining a career, and getting older. In her first book, she processes her own journey of leaning into the unexpected and learning how to build a home when everything blows up in your face.

184 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2023

Reviews

[Alicia D'Antonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so very grateful for this book and the woman who wrote it. Full disclosure, Sarah was my college roommate. I loved her then and I love her now and I am endlessly proud to see her thoughts and work complete and now shared with others.

Her stories are so many things: honest, raw, real, unapologetic, hopeful, and thoughtful - all things I admire about Sarah. Many of her entries struck me hard because at times I felt as if she was talking directly to me. The details of her experiences and mine are different, but so much the same - living through hard times you never saw coming, navigating motherhood, growing into women we have always been but becoming "a more authentic version of ourselves" as we grow older, and finding a strength that proves we are "tougher and braver than we thought possible." These were not my stories, but in some small way, it feels like Sarah captured many of mine as well.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I was a beta reader and a long time reader of Sarah's writing, but this book of essays explores all aspects of growing and change we experience as adults.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brave and vulnerable. Thank you, Sarah. ♥️

[Kerrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a story graph giveaway.

Glad I didn’t give up on this book

I really struggled with the first section of this book. It was extremely disjointed and repetitive. The same sections of the story told the same way in random places. I also felt the repetitive question method was very overused.

The second and third sections were completely different. I was engrossed in the story and found it cohesive, well written, emotional, and inspirational. Without the first section, this is a 5 star book for me.

[Miranda Summerset · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 STARS! I listened to the audiobook & struggled through the first half of this. It just repeated itself so many times with the moving stories & I felt like I listened to the same thing over 3 times. But, I actually liked the 2nd half a lot & liked her views on parenting a lot. Kind of a boring memoir though because it didn’t get too deep into anything.