I Kept Going

A memoir by Traci Boyl

Complete and seeking publication.

I once sat alone in an Arizona hotel room considering fleeing to Mexico rather than facing a possible prison sentence. Years later, I returned to Arizona to run my first marathon. I never could have imagined that one life would hold both experiences.

I grew up on a remote ranch in Northern California, where I learned early that being a girl came with limitations. At nineteen, I was a mother. In the years that followed, I raised three children, fought wildfires, built businesses, and worked hard to hold my life together. Beneath those responsibilities, I struggled with loss, destructive relationships, and drinking that increasingly led to blackouts.

After a violent assault and an arrest, I faced the possibility of prison. I could barely imagine a future. But I went home and faced what came next.

Getting sober was part of rebuilding my life. So was confronting my past, taking responsibility for my choices, and learning who I was beyond what had happened to me. Over time, I returned to school, earned an MBA in my forties, learned to fly, and began pursuing a life I once thought impossible.

I Kept Going follows the long road between the woman I was and the woman I became. It is a story of motherhood, family, love, drinking, mistakes, and the years it took me to believe in myself. A complicated, sometimes ugly, sometimes beautiful life—and the courage to keep going.