From Tir na nOg to Paradise: My Endless Summer

For Justin Crum, the phrase life is meant to be lived has always been an underlying force in his life. It’s part of what drove him to a remote Alaskan island to work one hundred hours a week and endure a lifestyle far beyond the pale of anything he had ever experienced. But when he narrowly averts death while snowboarding on Oregon’s Mount Ashland, the true depth of this message hits home with the force of a thunderclap. Intimately understanding now the precious—and precarious—nature of life, Justin has no choice but to throw himself headlong toward his dream of studying in the land of his ancestors: Ireland. And so begins his own, real-life journey to self-discovery. Leaving behind a blossoming love affair in Oregon, he arrives to soak up the history and culture of Ireland for a five-week stay. During this trip he learns he has been awarded the only space given to an American man as a national exchange student at the University of the Virgin Islands—and his return trip home from Ireland will be for only one week. Once again having to leave behind a truncated yet deeply moving romantic relationship, Justin follows the intuition of his spirit on an adventure full of life, loss, emotional change, spiritual growth, and a deeper, truer understanding of himself then he could have possibly imagined. A deeply personal account of one young man’s transition into adulthood, Crum bares his soul as he takes the reader on a guided tour of a life lived with honest, uncompromising abandon. His journey is our own and his frankness and fearlessness ideals to which we all aspire. A wild, valiant memoir about what it means when one dream comes at the cost of another, From Tir na nOg to Paradise: My Endless Summer will revive your spirit and inspire you to live life to the fullest.