The Story Behind Chasing 25: My Upcoming Book
I want to tell you about Chasing 25 because I think understanding why I wrote it matters just as much as what is actually in it.
By the time I was 22 years old I had already lost both of my parents, moved to a completely new state alone, struggled with deep depression and anxiety, experienced abuse, navigated crippling loneliness, and carried PTSD through a life that was not slowing down long enough for me to process any of it. I was working, surviving, and trying to figure out who I was supposed to be with none of the people who were supposed to help me get there still around.
Nobody handed me a guidebook for that. I wish they had.
That is exactly what Chasing 25 is.
What the Book Actually Is
Chasing 25 is not a memoir. It is not a story in the traditional sense. It is closer to a guidebook written from the other side of some of the hardest experiences a person can go through by a young age. Each chapter stands mostly on its own and covers a specific lesson, not surface level advice like just keep going or believe in yourself, but the real ones. How to sit with grief when it will not leave you alone. How to rebuild your identity when everything that shaped it is gone. How to survive things that cause complex trauma and come out the other side still recognizably yourself.
I share some of my own story throughout. Not in exhaustive detail but enough that you know these words came from somewhere real. The introduction gives you some context and certain chapters weave in pieces of my experience where it felt necessary to prove that I am not just theorizing. I lived this.
How to Read It
The chapters are designed to be read in order for the fullest experience because there is a progression to the way the book is structured. However if you feel called to a specific chapter you can jump to it. Just know it might send you bouncing around a little to fully understand the context. Think of it less like a novel and more like a friend who has been through some things sitting down with you and sharing everything they wish someone had told them.
Why I Wrote It
Honestly I wrote it because at 22 that book would have been my best friend. Some of the advice in it I probably would have rolled my eyes at in the moment, the way you do when you are young and hurting and not ready to hear certain truths yet. But I would have come back to it. And eventually I would have recognized how meaningful it actually was.
I wrote it so that nobody, no matter how young or how old, has to go through the hardest parts of being human feeling completely alone. Because that feeling, that specific loneliness of going through something enormous with no map and no guide, is one of the worst parts of any of it.
Chasing 25 is the map I never had. 🖤
Coming July 2026 under Isabelle Herrscher for Bayou Bound Books. Stay tuned for more details.
Follow along at bayouboundbooks.com and across all platforms at @bayouboundbooks
