At age 34, while still feeling like a 23 year old, her life took a very drastic turn that was leaving her feeling
older than her years. "Realizing that we aren't as bulletproof as we would like to think, is a hard pill to
swallow." said Jen. The other feeling that was constantly nagging at her was the fact that her cancer was
a cause of her poor choices in the past. "Being a smoker of more than 15 years, I know that this is a direct
result of that choice. There aren't many worse feelings of being a victim of your own stupidity." she added.

                       (Note: The following paragraph has been left intact just as Jen wrote it)

"Looking back over the last few year is a little strange.  Up until I was diagnosed, I lived life day by day, going
with the flow and not really thinking about who I was or what I wanted to accomplish.  Now, obviously, I have
a VERY clear goal that I am working towards and everything that I do has a reason behind it.  This next
statement sounds weird, ok, really weird, but I can't even imagine where I would be or what I would be doing
without cancer in my life.  The fight against it has become a part of me.  I have learned so much about myself,
my family, my friends and the disease itself.  These lessons are something that I would have never learned
had I not gone through all this and they apply to so many other areas of life.  I am so extremely excited to
get to a point where I am in remission but still have all this knowledge and strength."