"Coming Clean" by Kimberly Rae Miller Text-To-Society Connection

For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading the memoir, Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller. This memoir discusses a topic that is actually very serious: hoarding. The book is about a female named Kim and her life growing up with a father (and later on mother) who struggle with hoarding, and how Kim deals with finding peace in the situation later on in her life. In case if you are not aware, hoarding can be described as a mental illness that causes a person to keep many things (papers, boxes, and other items). This may not seem like a huge deal, but it really is-- the book mentions that Kim (main character) was living in filth. That is not healthy in many ways to grow up living with trash surrounding you. If you would like to know more on the subject of hoarding, the following link is a great place to reference for more information: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1313051

A possible central idea/ realization I have had from this memoir is that the base of many struggles and hardships is the wanting of normality. In this case, Kim's main struggle was that her parents are hoarders. This causes her to not be able to have anyone over (friends, maintenance, etc.-- this is a huge problem in itself!) and other issues, like bad sanitation, relationship struggles, and more. Kim mentions many times throughout the book that she just wanted to be normal. Normal meaning that her house would be clean like everyone else's, eliminating all of the other problems that arose because of living in trash. For example, page 108 talks about how much Kim liked her first year of college, because she wasn't dealing with her struggles (well, actually living in her struggles) and therefore felt normal. It states, "For the first time in my life, I felt normal. My freshman year was like a movie montage. I'd never been so happy." This supports the fact that the root of Kim's problem was wanting normality.

This central idea can also be connected to others and their problems with hoarding. In the video from this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj2Jag8lPB0, a woman named Jan struggles with hoarding. Her home is so overflowed with filth that she has to get ready for the day in a health club, and hasn't used her kitchen in 4-6 years. Jan says, "I am not living anywhere near what would be considered, quote, normal". This relates to my realization that the bases of many problems is the wanting of normality, because Jan's problem is, as she said, is not "what would be considered, quote, normal". If she lived in a normal house and didn't have an obsession to keep so much stuff (a normal person wouldn't have this obsession), then her struggle would disappear.

This central idea can also be connected to other people's struggles that don't involve hoarding. For example, a young girl named Ashlyn has a rare disease which causes her to not feel pain. This may seem good, since most people don't want to feel pain, however it is the opposite. Since she can't feel pain, it makes her extremely vulnerable to disease and injuries-- she doesn't feel the "warning signs" that can help prevent a disease if felt. Ashlyn and her family created a camp for families with kids who have the same disease as her. Her parent's were emotional when talking about how amazing the camp was, being surrounded by people whose normal lives are just like theirs. Ashlyn's mom said, "...to actually be in a room in presence of someone who knows what we've been through-- I mean, know your daily life, your daily struggles, and know you're not alone anymore. I mean, it was just amazing." This shows that the bases of Ashyln's problem is that she wants to have normal health and be normal (by not having this disease), because of how great of a time they had being around people who understand, and knowing that they weren't alone. Their normal was someone else's normal, which made them happy and gave them comfort. Therefore, the central idea that the bases of many people's struggles is the wanting of normality can also apply to Ashlyn and her situation. The interview of Ashyln and her parents is in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6iOUW523BE.

As you can see, the realization I had that the root of many problems is the wanting of normality is true for many people's situations, like Kim's, Jan's, and Ashlyn's  (explained above).