Nonfiction SCHOLASTIC SCOPE •FEBRUARY 2017 Jen Bricker NARRATIVE NONFICTION Reads Like Fiction the but It’S All True AMAZING
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Nonfiction Jen Bricker GARY HANNA GARY 4 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • FEBRUARY 2017 NARRATIVE NONFICTION reads like fiction THE but it’s all true AMAZING OF JEN BRICKER An incredible story of love, grit, and dreaming big. BY KRISTIN LEWIS raising a child with a disability. Think about the meaning of the title. AS YOU READ He insisted on leaving Jen at the hospital. en Bricker hangs 30 feet above the ground, And so Jen came into the world cocooned in red fabric suspended from the alone: without parents, without ceiling. The audience gasps as she rolls out even a name. Special-needs children are of the fabric, unfurling her body like a flag. statistically harder to place for Her long dark hair tumbles down behind adoption. Today in the U.S., more her in a wave. She moves with the grace of a ballerina than 110,000 special-needs kids J are waiting for permanent homes. and the strength of a linebacker. Jen’s future seemed uncertain at best. Jen is an aerialist. That’s an all the more amazing because Jen acrobat who performs daring was born without legs. “She Was Ours” feats high in the air. She has Less than 100 miles from appeared on stages from Alone in the World Salem, in the small town of Malaysia to Germany. In the Jen was born in 1987 in Salem, Hardinville, Illinois, lived Gerald country of Qatar, she made Illinois. With her big brown eyes and Sharon Bricker and their a grand entrance dangling and thick black hair, she was three sons. Their home was a from a hot-air balloon. While adorable. But something was happy one. Still, Gerald and on tour with Britney Spears, different about her. Because of Sharon felt something was she performed a high-flying a genetic defect, her legs never missing from their lives. trampoline act. Jen’s career is formed. Her biological father They had always impressive by any measure. It is decided he couldn’t handle wanted a little girl but JOSE MANDOJANAJOSE SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • FEBRUARY 2017 5 Jen steals the show in her couldn’t have more aerial act. Bottom: Jen as children. So they a child on the trampoline with her brother. decided to adopt one. A friend told them about an infant, born without legs, who had been placed in a foster home not far off. The Brickers set out to meet her. “She was this tiny itty bitty thing,” Sharon recalls. “She was so beautiful.” “She just looked up and smiled at us, and she was ours,” Gerald says. There was no doubt in the Brickers’ minds tktktktkt Usam, si that Jen was their unt. Vel ea sitias daughter. Still, they maximped quaspiendi wanted to understand sunt ationsed maios what kind of medical doluptius expla care she would need. They spoke with doctors, who painted a bleak picture of what Jen’s life would be like. One doctor Jen “walks” by even suggested Gerald and Sharon placing her hands on carry Jen around in a bucket. the ground in front The Brickers didn’t come of her, lifting herself away with a clear idea of what up and pulling herself Jen would need, but they were forward. She’s as determined that whatever it was, adept walking on her they would provide it. They knew hands as others are Jen was destined for a lot more walking on their feet—though playing with her brothers, than life in a bucket. she does have to be careful not to scurrying up rocks, swimming, “step” on bugs, dog poop, and so and bouncing on the trampoline Agile and Fearless on. (She uses a wheelchair when in her backyard. When she was As it turned out, Jen was she doesn’t want to get dirty.) about 2, a doctor outfitted her a natural athlete—agile and Her upper body is extremely with prosthetic legs, but she fearless. She quickly learned to strong. didn’t like wearing them. She get around using her arms. Growing up, Jen was always preferred to move on her hands. BRICKER JEN OF COURTESY IMAGES; KING/GETTY BARRY LEFT): TOP FROM (CLOCKWISE 6 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • FEBRUARY 2017 Can-Do Spirit told her family that she planned rapt, as Dominique Moceanu Technically, Jen has a to go to the Olympics—just like tumbled her way to a gold “disability,” which is defined as a Dominique. medal. Jen was 8 at the time. physical or mental condition that That may have seemed unlikely, Long afterward, she continued to limits a person’s activities. But but the Brickers knew their admire Dominique. Yet she felt Jen says she’s lucky. Growing up, daughter would continue to defy like more than a fan. Jen had a lot she felt she could do anything she expectations. in common with her idol. They put her mind to—whether it was were both gymnasts. They were playing on the volleyball team or A Lot of Attention both of Romanian descent. They stealing the ball on the basketball Jen’s success garnered her a lot both had big eyes, tan skin, and court. of attention. Articles were written long dark hair. Jen’s mom saw it Jen’s positive outlook was about her. News crews came to too: The girls shared an uncanny instilled in her from a young age. her school to film her. She was resemblance. “Can’t” was never part of her even flown to New York City to be There was a reason for that. vocabulary. In the Bricker house, on a popular talk show. Seeing Dominique’s name the word was just not allowed. At the time, she found the on the TV screen during the “We were always telling her, attention strange. She remembers Olympics, Sharon suddenly ‘You can do anything you want to thinking, “This is dumb. I am not remembered something: the do,’” Gerald says. “We just had to anything special. Why am I an name of Jen’s biological family. figure it out and off she’d go.” inspiration to you?” The name had been included in Jen was something of a prodigy Like many kids in middle Jen’s hospital records by mistake. in sports. In elementary school, school, Jen sometimes longed That name was Moceanu. she could speed around the to blend in. But as she learned, It seemed impossible. But softball diamond on her hands. when you don’t have legs, it made perfect sense. Jen and She snowboarded and fished anywhere you go, people notice Dominique were sisters. and rode horses. She even roller- you. skated on her hands. Now What? But gymnastics was where Jen It Seemed Impossible Gerald and Sharon waited really shone. She started training During the 1996 Olympic until Jen was 16 to tell her about at a nearby gym when she was Games in Atlanta, Georgia, Jen Dominique. When they told her, 7. She would race down the mat sat glued to the TV. She watched, Jen felt like she was living in a on her hands, launch herself dream. Jen and her adoptive onto the vault, then rocket into parents, Gerald and Sharon “The girl I idolized, the girl the air, flipping with power and I watched on TV . she’s my ease. At age 11, she took home biological sister?” Jen thought. gold at the state gymnastics It took Jen four years to track championship, beating out the down Dominique’s address. able-bodied gymnasts. While searching, Jen learned In Jen’s gym, there that she had another sister, was a poster of her Christina. In 2007, Jen wrote idol, 1996 Olympic Dominique a letter. champ Dominique As Dominique— JOSE MANDOJANAJOSE Moceanu. One day, Jen who had since SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • FEBRUARY 2017 7 retired from gymnastics—read hope to be able to respond Jen’s letter, she wept. She called just as she has? With her mom, who confirmed the fearlessness, with hope, story. Soon after, Dominique with heart? and Jen spoke on the phone. In the introduction They were overjoyed to have to her new memoir, found each other, yet sad to have Everything Is Possible, missed so many years of being in Jen shares a quote from each other’s lives. a William Shakespeare play. The line she chose Everything Is Possible could not be more fitting: Today, Jen is 29. Her life has “Though she be but little, Jen with her sisters Dominique Moceanu (left) and Christina Moceanu Chapman (middle) been a whirlwind. She went she is fierce.” • to college, worked at Disney World, and created an aerial act with another acrobat. She Poem has also become close Can’t BY EDGAR ALBERT GUEST with Dominique and Read this Can’t is the worst word that’s written or spoken; Christina. poem and you’ll see why Doing more harm here than slander and lies; And of course, Jen it reminds us On it is many a strong spirit broken, remains as adventurous of Jen. as ever. She scuba dives, And with it many a good purpose dies. kayaks, and surfs. It springs from the lips of the thoughtless each morning But when asked to reflect on And robs us of courage we need through the day: her achievements, Jen resists a bit. It rings in our ears like a timely-sent warning She insists that there is nothing And laughs when we falter and fall by the way. special about her. That she has no superpowers. That she’s just Can’t is the word that is foe to ambition, a normal person who works An enemy ambushed to shatter your will; hard and doesn’t give up.