For as long as I can remember, I have been sensate and intuitive. These are gifts yet also burdens. As a young child, I didn’t have the skills to cope with emotions, and an early loss in my life set the stage for me to create tools to numb myself from pain. At the age of eight, I manifested an eating disorder that was soon accompanied by alcohol addiction. I kept these secret for nearly three decades. I managed in life as a highly functioning addict—constantly seeking worthiness through academic accomplishments as a professor of engineering at UC Berkeley.
The conduit for recovery, self-acceptance, and worthiness came in the form of my long-legged thoroughbred by the name of JJ. He saw beneath my facade and witnessed the scared little girl who was trying to hide herself from the world. JJ offered me unconditional love and a path for self-acceptance. He served as my guide to healing, not only in body but in spirit.
I chronicle this journey in Soul of a Professor: A Memoir of an Un-Engineered Life with the intention to offer a story of hope that can provide space for others to claim lives filled with purpose, self-acceptance, and joy.
(You can learn more about Lisa at lisaapruitt.com.)
