When Jennifer
was 5 years old, she wrote a story about a pig: a non-fictional account of what
a pig ate, where it lived, etc. She illustrated this gem with cute curly-tailed
swine. She folded it into a book, giving it an appropriate title: The Pig
Book and signed it “By Book Maker Jennifer”. Her father cherished it,
calling Jennifer, his “Pig Book Maker” even years later!
As Jennifer grew
older, she began seeking her life purpose, thinking that somehow a gong would sound,
and she would be bequeathed with some earth-shattering revelation. Unfortunately,
nothing miraculously appeared except the biotech sales career that developed
out of reading a book called Mega-Trends. So she set her sights on
curing incurable diseases with gene therapy elixirs.
Jennifer stayed
on the biotech bandwagon, receiving a Masters in Molecular Biology. She was elated to finally be working in
her chosen field only to realize that lab life wasn’t the gig that filled her
soul. And her colleagues noticed too. Jennifer didn’t “act” like most scientists,
so maybe she should go to the ‘dark side’ and try sales.
Thus began a slightly
more well-suited career, selling research services to support drug discovery.
Yet Jennifer remained unfulfilled, nearing mid-life with no legacy to speak of,
wondering if she would ever find her ‘true calling’?
After 25 years,
she finally took a class called “How to Write Your Book” that opened her heart
to rediscovering what the 5-year-old Jennifer knew all along: She really should
be a ‘book maker’!
Like Betty, the protagonist in The Chunkiest Angel, Jennifer
thought God was playing a joke on her, working a demanding job that wasn’t
aligned with her higher calling. But God has baked this ‘rookie cookie’ enough,
and she’s ready for the world to try out her stories!