My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis - Softcover

Gasner, Jennifer

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798885280310

Verlag: Acorn Publishing, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

“A refreshing coming-of-age memoir exploring young love, college, and careers while navigating a progressing disability.”-Independent Book Review

Jennifer Gasner is seventeen when her dreams are shattered overnight.
Receiving a diagnosis of Friedreich’s ataxia, a rare genetic neuromuscular disease, means she must prepare herself for a life of loss. When she starts college, she can still walk on her own, but as her disease progresses, she spirals further into sadness, denial, and alienation. She turns to alcohol and a toxic relationship to distract her from what she refuses to accept—that her body, her self-esteem, and her hope for her future are failing.

When Jennifer develops a friendship with rock star Dave Matthews, her outlook changes. She begins to understand that using a wheelchair doesn’t mean her life is over. In fact, when she discovers disability culture, she realizes it’s not her body that needs to be fixed but her assumptions about being disabled.

In her captivating memoir, My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis, Jennifer invites you into her world, where she must learn to view her changing body with compassion and choose gratitude over anger as she finds strength and acceptance in a whole new way of moving through life.

Hollywood Book Festival Awards Honorable Mention for biography/autobiography
Notable 100 Book, 2023 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition
Gold Book Award, Literary Titan
April 2024 Author of the Month, San Diego Central Library
Red Ribbon, The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jennifer Gasner received her BA in English from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and her MS in recreation from Western Illinois University. Her work with Independent Living Centers enabled her to learn about various disability programs throughout the country and ignited her passion for disability culture. She relocated to San Diego, California, on her own at the age of twenty-eight. As a mentor for What's Next, a program for youths with disabilities, and as co-chair of UC San Diego's Staff Association for staff with disabilities, Jennifer solidified her role in the San Diego disability community. In 2020, Jennifer became an ambassador for the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), raising awareness about Friedreich's ataxia (FA). She participated in Rare Across America, meeting with legislators to discuss laws affecting more than 25 million Americans living with one or more rare diseases. Jennifer is a member of the International Memoir Writers Association, and her writing has been published in Shaking the Tree, volumes 3 and 4. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, movies, and traveling. She lives with her boyfriend Gregory and their dog. My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis is her first book.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Acorn Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 13: 9798885280310
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 302
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.de/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxemburg