A child of a hoarder-an outcast growing up amid shocking squalor-finds purpose in this vivid memoir. Broken, alone and buried in a house full of junk and shame, Eddy Gilmore takes the "normal" route out-institutionalized learning. But when college life fails to offer meaning, the young man reaches a turning point, a point at which he abandons social norms, abandons the status quo, and strikes out on his own. A lifetime of adventure packed into a nine-month "gestational" period awaits: face-to-face encounters with wildlife, a devastating monsoon, a magical winter near the Canadian border, the kindness of strangers. Gilmore's quest for knowledge and wisdom through experience, adventure, faith, and books will engage you as the author comes to fully experience the world for the first time.