Chicago's Sarah Fay Shares Five Things She's Learned about America
View the next in our new series of messages, ideas, and inspiration – shared directly from Americans we admire.
Five Things I’ve Learned began with the aim of learning directly from people we long admired. Find out what they think most important to share, we believed, and we’d learn and be inspired by their example.
This summer, we’re doing something more: soliciting and sharing written pieces, short videos, and other bursts of ideas and inspiration from people whose ideas and experiences give shape to the issues that continue to shape America and November’s upcoming national election.
Today, author, activist, educator and entrepreneur Sarah Fay shares Five Things She’s Learned About America.
Sarah is the award-winning writer of the memoirs Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses and Cured, and she writes for publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and The Paris Review. She’s also the founder and director of the much-read and much-admired Substack Writers at Work, helping people master the art and business of Substack.
Five Things I’ve Learned About America
“I’m Sarah Fay. I’m the author of Pathological and Cured: The Memoir. I’m also a mental health advocate. I’m also a bestselling Substack writer. I’m also a Substack strategist helping people master the platform. I’m also on the creative writing faculty at Northwestern. And I’m also a lover of all things cats.“
Americans really do care about each other.
“When the ambulance arrived, they said “How many people are injured?” – because so many people were gathered around my father, and so many people had called 911, that they thought there was some kind of mass injury.”
Sometimes we don't care about each other enough.
“Our mental health system is broken. That’s not an overstatement.”
The mental health system is broken, but it doesn't need to be.
“We can start by talking about mental health recovery, instead of just mental illness or mental disorders.”
Americans like things to be black and white but sometimes things are grey. Mental health recovery is like that.
“There isn’t one way to recover, just like there isn’t one type of mental illness.”
Americans are funny. We're resilient. And we're full of joy.
“My job, as far as I’m concerned when I leave the house, is to make somebody’s day a little bit better.”
ABOUT SARAH
Sarah Fay is the award-winning writer of the memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses (HarperCollins). Pathological was an Apple Best Books pick, hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto of a memoir,” and named by Parade Magazine as one of the sixteen best mental health memoirs to read. She writes for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and The Paris Review, where she was an advisory editor. Her new memoir Cured—the sequel to Pathological—is a bestseller on Substack. She’s on the creative writing faculty at Northwestern University, a certified mental health peer recovery specialist, a private Substack consultant, and the founder and director of Substack Writers at Work helping people master the art and business of Substack.
MORE ABOUT FIVE THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT AMERICA
Five Things I’ve Learned about America presents live, personal conversations with leading thinkers, organizers, and advocates for our democracy. In tandem, we’re soliciting and sharing written pieces, short videos, and other bursts of ideas and inspiration from people whose ideas and experiences are equally inspiring and instructive.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the kind and enthusiastic response we’ve received to this new series. If you’ve just recently discovered us, please check out recent reflections about America from people we admire including including Tony Alcaraz, Yvette Benavides, Francisco Guajardo, Tina Hedin, Marya Hornbacher, Megan Matson, Jeannine Ouellette, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, Greg Sandow, Brooke Warner, Oliver Wasow, and Jamie Whalen.
And check out our free conversation series presented in partnership with Resolute Square, featuring 90-minute sessions with Americans we admire including Alan Light, Jennifer Mercieca, Beto O'Rourke, Trygve Olson, and Stuart Stevens.
So happy to see your contributions, Sarah. I love what you wrote. Thank you. Everyone should do this exercise, right? Illuminating and inspiring.
I love this series! And Sarah Fay ! (Exclamation points just for her!) she’s spot on in her evaluation of American mental health “systems”. There truly are not any systems in place. Perhaps one day we will return to a way of being that knows we must all care for each other.
Ps. Sarah, I hope your Dad’s fall wasn’t too serious 💞