There's No Such Thing As Bad

In her memoir There's No Such Thing As Bad, Joyce Skala traces a life shaped by trauma, ire, pain, visibility, and the quiet reckoning that follows survival. Through childhood shadows, a house ire that erased everything familiar, years of physical pain, PTSD, and the unraveling of identities that once worked; this memoir moves not toward resolution-but toward congruence. With lyric precision and unlinching honesty, Skala explores what happens when the body stops cooperating, when productivity no longer measures worth, and when alignment begins shaping outcomes instead of effort. As visibility grows and access shifts, the cost of authenticity becomes clear-