A memoir synopsis. For publication inquiries, please contact me at justinagemignani@gmail.com.The Scenic Route to Adulthood
In this memoir, the 35-year-old millennial author takes the winding path to self-acceptance, rewriting the rules along the way as they pertain to every facet of her life. While focusing on the past, present, and future, she takes readers through her relatable journey then gives them the tools needed to adapt and find their own path using her vision.
In the beginning of the book, Justina speaks of the chaos of the worldwide pandemic and the impact it has on her state of wellbeing. She perseveres, until living in the Republican hotbed of West Bend, WI, during a summer of racial and political tension pushes her to her limit. During the story, she makes the difficult decision to move across the state to her hometown of La Crosse, WI, for the sake of raising her kids in a community with diversity, acceptance, and better family values.
This huge life change creates a shift in personal growth. Justina shares just how she was able to put the past, present, and future at the center of her healing journey. The realization that our past cultural ideals inform our self worth and belief systems allows us to decide whether we want to make a paradigm shift for the sake of our own sanity and happiness and the next generation. Justina unpacks her old and new ideals as they relate to beauty standards, sexuality, shame, food and body image, love, relationships, life goals, and spirituality.
The people we meet along the way are our “guiding lights” and we turn to them for guidance, using them as role models to light our path. Justina details how she gets by day-to-day while sharing the unusual resources that helped her find her way. A therapist, a pastor, an astrologist, a psychic medium, and a library of books are just a few of the offbeat helpers Justina touches upon that helped her create a life she loves.
The idea that “you already are everything you need” is life changing. Justina speaks to the idea that coming back to yourself, listening to your gut, allowing nature and the miracles of the mundane to bring awe and wonder into your life, and developing rituals to create an oasis of safety and self love help you carve a path to the future of your dreams. In a culture where most self-help literature tells you to strive to be better, it’s refreshing to hear that if you lean into the imperfect nature that already exists inside of you, you might just find the peace and growth you were looking for all along.
Justina has created a practical, no-nonsense guide that will appeal to an audience of any age range or background. Following two years of intense work on herself, friends began to notice how at peace she seemed despite the constant instability of her surroundings. This inspired her to write a book depicting the recipe of her journey, allowing others access to her secret of personal growth.