Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
 Memoir
 Date Published: September 7, 2023
 Publisher: Acorn Publishing
 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.
 About the Author
 
 
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 youth 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 San Diego 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.
  
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