Within the first few pages of her third journal, Jodi shows pride and progress in her efforts to find peace within herself as she talks about “getting higher and higher every day” and “growing very patient and understanding” (page 73).

In the last few months of her time at Wheeler’s leading up to her return home and the birth of her son, Jodi engages with some of the emotional and social struggles she still faces even in the wake of her heightened self-assuredness. Her reflections on pages 74-75 highlight the ways in which she still feels lonely, and she seems to offer a critique of the transient lifestyle as a contributing factor to this inability to find stable connections to other people.

 

 

In this third journal Jodi seems to have cultivated a stronger relationship to God, illustrating a trajectory of increased religious faith over the course of her writing. She describes her religious connection as such: “detached from the flesh + striving for a spiritual release–alone except for God” (page 97). Her final thoughts show that many of her questions remain unanswered, and as she prepares to head back to her parents’ home to give birth to her son she notes: “I remain strong and devoted, but I fear that I, too, will break under the burden” (page 99).