“High Achiever” – A Book Review

Since #14 on my Bucket List is to “read one true story each month for a year”, I decided to post a review for each book that I complete for my Bucket List, as I complete it.  This will not only provide some insight into the book itself, as well as my opinion of the book, but, maybe, it will encourage others to read it as well – and form their own opinion.  If you have already read it, feel free to share your thoughts on it!

Here we go with book 1 of 12…

High Achiever by Tiffany Jenkins

This is not a book that I would have normally picked to read, just for the sake of reading a book.  However, since my goal is to read a true story each month, I decided I was going to need to pick a few that I would otherwise normally pass up.  The whole idea is to branch out a little, read something different, and hopefully take something away from what I have read – have a better understanding of something, or someone.

High Achiever is a hard book to read – not because of the writing, because of the content.  It is the true story of Tiffany Jenkins, as told by Tiffany herself.  It is her story of living (and almost dying from) a life of drug addiction, and how she overcame that life to become the wife, mother and public speaker that she is today.  At the time her book went to print, she was five years sober.

Her story begins with her arrest, but through conversation and memories, she takes you all the way back to her childhood.  As you follow her story, you begin to see how a once happy little girl grew into a successful adolescent, and with the pop of one pill, threw it all away.  She takes you with her as she describes how she managed to hurt and deceive everyone around her, including her longtime boyfriend who happened to be a police officer in the town they lived in.  She details the many horrible things she did, just to get her fix – which, by the time she was arrested, was something she needed every hour.

It is the story of one persons struggle to not only pay for the crimes they committed, but to get clean, stay clean, and help others understand the power behind the decisions we make.  She lets us see how one wrong decision can destroy your life, but also, how one right decision, can save that same life.

I spent over ten years working in a job where I saw drug addiction on a daily basis.  I saw what it did to the patients and their families, and I never understood how so many people end up in those situations.  My thought was always, that at one point, they had to have made a conscious decision to do drugs.  I understand that not every person has the same story, but for Tiffany, and I am sure, for many others, she shows you how it is a process that is gradual, but at the same time, almost instantly robs you of the ability to have rational thought.

I feel like she tells an important story in her book, even if it’s her own story.  The only thing I felt was missing, were a couple of loose ends as far as some of the key people in her story (her police officer boyfriend, the police force in general, her drug dealer and her sister).  She touches on all of them at the end, but I would have been interested to know how her relationship with all of them has changed since her recovery.

I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks they may be interested in it, for any reason.  I do not think that it is a book that you have to be able to “relate” to in any way, in order to take something away from it.  If nothing else, it can offer up an understanding of how a good person can make a bad choice, and how that one choice can change the course of their life.

I am giving this book 3 out of 4 Scouts

4 Scouts – Loved it.  3 Scouts – Liked it.  2 Scouts – Disliked it.  1 Scout – Hated it.