There's No Such Thing As Bad

Some stories are not about overcoming. They are about listening. In her memoir There’s No Such Thing As Bad, Joyce Skala traces a life shaped by trauma, fire, pain, visibility, and the quiet reckoning that follows survival. Through childhood shadows, a house fire 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. This is not about fixing yourself. It is a story about learning to feel at home within yourself. With lyric precision and unflinching 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— and so does what remains when performance falls away.