Biography
Jennifer Kay is a walking miracle. By the age of 13, she had been molested, raped, started smoking and drinking, and was in a relationship with an older man who introduced her to cocaine. For four years, she endured physical and emotional abuse from him, including a loaded gun being put to her head threatening her life if she ever left. Gathering all the courage she had inside Jennifer did leave, but the trauma she experienced set the foundation for which she sought out future relationships.
At 17 and a senior in high school, Jennifer began dating a 30 year-old drug dealer. This destructive relationship with a man who was in and out of jail started Jennifer on a vicious downward spiral. She began ditching classes, her grades dropped and she started smoking cocaine. A once loving and easy-going young woman, Jennifer had turned into an angry, rebellious, and deceitful person. She was lying to family and friends. Everything seemed to cause her to explode with rage. But most of all, she was denying the fact that her life was dangerously out of control.
After barely graduating high school, Jennifer ran away from her home in Oregon to northern California. It was here that she was introduced to meth. It was just the high she had been looking for. It was cheaper, lasted longer, and she felt euphoria like never before. Over the next 15 years, Jennifer used meth not only for the unbelievable high, but also for weight loss and her constant struggle with depression.
Following her self-destructive patterns, Jennifer married into alcoholism and drug use. She was battered, worn down, threatened, and abused over and over again, all the while fueling and feeding her own addiction to meth. By the age of 29, Jennifer found herself living as a single mom of two school-aged children and an overwhelming desire to make things right. She wanted to give her kids the life they deserved. With her history of abusive relationships, drug addiction, and low self-esteem, Jennifer knew she had to rise above these challenges and change the course of her life.
She knew she had a choice. She would either die a drug addict or triumph over the tragedies for her and her children’s sake. And overcome is what she did. Through divine intervention and sheer will power, Jennifer quit meth. With this decision came a newfound inner strength that led her to obtaining a BA in Visual Communications and Marketing. But in the midst of her quest for education, Jennifer suffered major setbacks. One year into her program, a football-sized tumor was found in her abdomen. This terminal condition was expected to take her life, but after one major surgery, six weeks of recuperation and a mighty touch of God’s hand, Jennifer miraculously returned to school. But this tumor was only the beginning. Throughout the next three years, Jennifer had to stop her studies multiple times due to two strokes and an emergency appendectomy. After all this, when most would surrender, she refused to give up. And after four years in what was supposed to be an accelerated three-year program, Jennifer completed her Bachelor’s degree with honors.
After graduating, Jennifer excelled in the corporate world and went from being a graphic designer to Vice President of Marketing and Communications at a global consulting firm. She became a certified trainer in Systems Thinking and consulted for companies such as Avon and the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. At the pinnacle of her success, Jennifer was struck with yet another tragedy. On September 10, 2006, a car ran a red light and hit the driver’s side of her car. Jennifer was gravely injured and spent the next two years in and out of surgeries and procedures, including brain surgery in 2008. After all this, and surviving more than most can even imagine, Jennifer decided to leave her VP position and pursue her dream of writing, speaking, and sharing her story with the world.
Jennifer’s goal is to educate young women of the debilitating effects meth had on her life and to inspire them to make better choices in their relationships. She is currently working on her first book, participating in various speaking engagements, and continues to work with local foundations to mentor young women who are addicted to drugs and victims of abuse. “I just want to inspire others to live the life they were meant to live.” Most recently, Jennifer was a featured author in the #1 Best Selling Book Series, Wake up…Live the Life You Love, Bouncing Back: Thriving in Changing Times with Dr. Wayne Dyer and Brian Tracy.
Jennifer longs to see others who are caught in the web of drugs, abuse, addictions, and turmoil, to find the strength to turn their lives around…to rise from the ashes and live life anew. It is her desire to encourage others to make positive changes in their lives. And for all she’s been through, Jennifer wants to use the trials she faced as a testimony to others that even in the midst of impossibilities, all things really are possible through the strength of God.
Bouncing Back: Thriving in Changing Times
