Sharon Dukett has been a computer programmer, deputy director in state government, cocktail waitress, and project manager (PMP certified), and she has designed and embroidered handmade clothing. She travels extensively using loyalty points and avoiding tourist traps. When she is home, she and her husband live in central Connecticut in a house he built overlooking the Connecticut River where they raised their family. When not writing or blogging, she is reading, skiing, biking, golfing, spending time with family and friends, creating clutter, and committing to more activities than she probably should. She loves reading memoir from a variety of backgrounds—to learn how others feel, experience life, and deal with their struggles. This is her debut memoir.

At sixteen, Sharon leaves home to escape the limited life her parents have planned for her—it’s 1971 in Connecticut, and they think that, because she’s a girl, she should become a clerical office worker after high school and live at home until she marries and has a family. But Sharon wants to join the hippies and be part of the changing society, so she heads to California.

Thrown into an adult world for which she is unprepared, she embarks on a precarious journey amid the 1970s counterculture. On her various adventures across the country and while living on a commune, with friends and lovers filtering in and out of her life, she realizes she must learn quickly in order to survive.

In this colorful memoir, Sharon navigates difficult lessons as she searches for a place to belong. She reconciles her spirituality and her Catholic upbringing. Most important, she recognizes how the changes that reshaped her during the 1970s women’s movement have transformed society’s expectations for girls and women today. And through it all, she shares moments of triumph, joy, love, and awakening.