Friend #21 - Jen

I’d been lured across the breezeway at the Mesa Arts Center with the promise of cupcakes.  A decorated table displaying a full array of decadent cupcakes sat at the bottom of the stairway.  I slowly stalked the full length of the table, eyeing the cupcakes, each one more delicious-looking than the next and finally settled on a chocolate-on-chocolate number that made me salivate.  I picked it up and immediately realized how difficult it was going to be to eat a cupcake gracefully. 

Strategically thinking that I needed some type of support, I meandered over to an area of tables, slowly dismembering the paper from around the bottom of the cupcake.  I had no sooner taken a bite when I was suddenly sharing my table with a couple.  Another couple came up right behind them.  We all engaged in small talk but I was very consciously aware of the woman to my left.  She was older than me, but confident and elegant in a way that I’ve always aspired to be. 

I didn’t get to talk to her much that evening as she was busy talking to the mayor, but I did find out that she is running for Mesa City Council…in my district!  She was so intriguing that I took a chance and asked her if she would like to be my new friend for the week, since this is what I do now.  And I was absolutely delighted when she said yes!

We met back up in a quirky little coffee shop in downtown Mesa.  Jen was just as fashion-forward as I remembered.  She leaned back in a retro cushioned chair and told me her first job was in fashion merchandising at Goldwater’s Department store.  She had quit college for that job.  It had been her dream job.  She hated it.

So in order to get away from the stress at Goldwater’s, Jen started bass fishing.  I cocked my head.  Bass fishing???  It was hard to envision someone so cosmopolitan out on a lake, fishing.  But Jen grew up in Arizona in a time when this city was a lot more rural than it is today.  Her family had fished growing up so she had learned, too.  She was spending a day on the lake when someone suggested she enter a fishing tournament where she could win money.  It was just a little backwards tournament but Jen actually won the grand prize of $500.  It was such easy money that Jen started entering more bass fishing tournaments.  And that original $500 wasn’t a fluke.  Jen was good at bass fishing…well, actually she was great at it.  She began winning more and more tournaments.

After a while, people began to take notice that this blonde-haired, blue-eyed, waif of a woman was winning…a lot.  And once she secured her first bass fishing sponsorship, she realized it would be tight but she could live on that money for a full year.  That’s when she quit her job at Goldwater’s and began bass fishing full time.  She even landed herself on the cover of a bass fishing magazine.  Some Japanese businessmen happened to be in Arizona learning about American bass fishing when they saw Jen’s picture on the cover of that magazine.  She stood out because she was so different than what a typical bass fisherman would look like.  The Japanese businessmen were intrigued so they asked her to come to compete in two bass fishing tournaments in Japan.  It was an adventure and Jen was in her late twenty’s, still young enough to appreciate such things, so she accepted their invitation.

Her first tournament in Japan was at the base of Mt. Fuji.  It was a tough day for her on the lake and Jen only came back with three tiny fish.  She was devastated, thinking her new Japanese benefactors were going to be disappointed.  As it happened, it was a tough day on the lake for everyone and Jen won the tournament!  In the next tournament, she placed in the top ten.  Because she had done so well, the Japanese asked her to stay in Japan for a full year. 

It was exciting to be in a place so different from where she came from, so Jen stayed.  She met a fantastic group of friends who were fascinated by Americana, and her, as an extension of that fascination.  In fact, they liked her so much they began to ask Jen to consult on bass fishing products, and when Jen’s year in Japan was up, she continued her consultations long distance.  Consulting paid enough money that Jen no longer had to fish for a living.  Jen’s close relationship with the Japanese also led her to discover that the Japanese’s obsession with precision actually meant they were manufacturing superior bass fishing lures.  Jen then began manufacturing her own lures that were made in Japan.  She sold them as a high-end product in American fishing shops.  Everyone told her she was crazy…but her line was a huge success.

By 2009, Jen began to feel like her life had become too homogenized behind the walls of her gated community.  The comings and goings were so mundane.  Jen found herself craving simplicity and a fresh start so she purchased a cozy, little bungalow in downtown Mesa.  In an effort to meet her neighbors, Jen created what she called “Jen’s Open House”.  Once a month, her home was open to anyone who wanted to come, but...you had to bring something.  It could be wine.  Or art.  Or another person.  Jen’s old neighbors came from their gated communities.  Jen’s new neighbors ambled down the street.  And once a month, Jen’s home became filled with art and laughter as a diverse group of people set aside their differences and gathered together as a community.  It was a place where an eighty-year-old priest and a twenty-year-old tattoo artist could be found immersed in a lively discussion on any number of topics.

It was through these evenings that Jen came to love the diversity of her hometown.  Her idea is that a community is only sustainable if it is diverse.  Change is a constant.  What is new and considered “luxury” today will not be that way forever.  Overly homogenized communities tend to fall into neglect after a few decades, but if a community can continue to have enough low, middle and high income housing, that community will be viable for years to come.  That is what she wants for Mesa.  That is where she sees the future.

Part of the reason Jen is so passionate about becoming a member of the Mesa City Council is because she wants to keep the heart of Mesa beating strong, stronger than it ever has before.  And as I was sitting across from her, I was so full of admiration for this beautiful, smart, conscientious woman who succeeded in a man’s industry with grace, long before there was the cry of “me too”.  This isn’t a typical politician who wants to hide behind closed doors.  This is a woman who wants to fight for the people in her community and someone whose wisdom should be used to mold the foundation of the future.

It also just goes to show you that you never know who you are going to meet over the unwrapping of a simple cupcake...so you might as well just go for it.