St. Jude Inspiration4 passenger Hayley Arceneaux recounts her 'Wild Ride' in new memoir

Hayley Arceneaux beat cancer, accepted her dream job and became the youngest American to orbit Earth.

Now, she's captured her life story from childhood cancer to Earth's orbit in her first book: "Wild Ride: A Memoir of I.V. Drips and Rocket Ships."

"It's very personal," said Arceneaux, 30. "I was actually really inspired by people who reached out to me and told me that my story inspired them. Especially people on social media were reaching out, messaging me and telling me about overcoming cancer or how different aspects of my story impacted them and that's what made me want to share it even bigger, and more permanently with this book."

Arceneaux joined the first all-civilian space mission, Inspiration4, in September 2021. They circled Earth every 90 minutes for a three-day mission by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company.

In the memoir, Arceneaux, a physician's assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and former patient, recounts the space trip as well as her childhood cancer diagnosis, treatment, "trying to get (her) life back," her father's death and working toward her dream job at St. Jude.

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After eight weeks of long nights, tears and smiles, she had written her 208-page, 21-chapter book and submitted the manuscript in January to the Crown Publishing Group.

"Wild Ride" was released Tuesday and Arceneaux will cap off her book launch week Saturday with a 5 p.m. appearance at Novel, 387 Perkins Extd. She will read an excerpt and meet with those interested in learning her life story.

Everything comes full circle

"I got back from space and just put all of my thoughts and everything down on paper," Arceneaux said. "It could be difficult and emotional at times, especially reliving the harder things I've gone through, but it also brought back a lot of good memories."

As she dedicated the eight weeks after space travel to writing her book, she spent a majority of the time working on the chapters about space training and finding the perfect combination of words to describe how Earth looked.

Arceneaux also said readers will recognize how vulnerable she becomes in the book when discussing training and how it effected her physically, mentally and emotionally.

"I want people to be in that mindset with me," she said. "That was the most challenging part for me to write, not only was it so beautiful but I was trying to put into words how it made me feel."

Although the book features challenging discourse on cancer and space travel, she wrote it through the lens of a "regular person" and expects readers to relate to the memoir. She hopes readers will find it "very lighthearted and even funny" at times.

The final chapter, "I'm Still Me," ties together her life until now and prevails as her favorite piece in the book.

"It was emotional especially when I wrote the last chapter," she said. "It's a very full circle tying everything together in my life, and for me I was just so overcome like, 'Wow everything has come together in such a beautiful way.'"

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A new sense of gratitude

Arceneaux notes she remains constantly grateful for her life but writing the memoir filled her with a new sense of gratitude, especially as one of the 75 women who have reached space.

"This book helped me process what I was seeing and feeling while being in space," she said. "Me, who had no experience in the aerospace industry, was given this incredible opportunity, and I spent a lot of time on the chapters about space because I wanted to do a good job at describing what the Earth looked like from space."

To complete the process, Arceneaux was trying to come up with a title when someone on her book team noticed she often referred to her life as a "wild ride."

An astronaut decorated in pink flowers, a purse with a stethoscope hanging on it, a shining disco ball and red heels, by Louisiana artist Ashley Longshore, covers the front of "Wild Ride."

Arceneaux said the illustration encapsulates her vision for a "fun and funky" cover while also serving how she sees herself— "feminine and badass."

"I wanted the cover to be lighthearted and to reflect that this is a lighthearted book," she said. "I talk about some difficult things, but that's part of being alive, and to just be able to look back at that through this lens of optimism but also realness."

Her memoir is available for sale at local and major retailers including Novel, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and as an audiobook recorded by her.

By next year, Arceneaux will also come out with a middle grade version of the book aimed at 8- to 12-year-olds and a children's picture book.

Dima Amro covers the suburbs for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at Dima.Amro@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @AmroDima.

Hayley Arceneaux's appearance at Novel 

When: 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Novel Memphis, 387 Perkins Extd.

Tickets: Line tickets are required to meet Arceneaux and are free with a purchase of her book, which costs $26.

Details: For more information, visit novelmemphis.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: St. Jude Inspiration4 passenger shares her life in 'Wild Ride' memoir