Biography: Jane Myers

JANE MYERS

Jane Myers is the eldest daughter of her family. She has one younger sister, Lisa, who was born to her parents David and Megan about three years after Jane herself.

The Myers family is devoutly Christian, and this mindset colored many of Jane's early perceptions. Her parents encouraged Christian behavior, striking hard at selfishness, inconsiderateness, anger and other vices. While any parent wants their child to be a good person, Jane's parents later realized they'd gone rather overboard: their daughter grew up to be a supreme perfectionist, a marked conservative who seemed to go out of her way to avoid doing anything bad, no matter how minor. The exact turning point was probably the night Jane's mom found her in bed with her hand between her legs, clearly exploring pleasures no six-year-old girl (to Megan Myers's way of thinking) should know about. Later, Mrs. Myers would come to think she had overreacted—wasn't sex a natural, normal thing?, and why shouldn't a girl know what her body did?—but the damage was done. At the same time, though, Jane was a willing subject to their rule; Lisa, a much more vivacious personality, proved that much of Jane's discipline was personal decision. Jane got excellent grades, was in all the advanced classes, and was unfailingly described by parents and teachers as a polite, intelligent person, but she seemed to have no other personality, and not a lot of companionship either.

This pattern continued, without much variation, throughout most of high school. Though she had a few friends, Jane was not close with anyone, and turned to books, studies and arts & crafts to occupy her time. Despite her clear book smarts, few of her classmates turned to her for help or advice, a situation Jane seemed completely happy with. Indeed, there were times when she seemed to discourage emotional intimacy. Despite the bond of blood between herself and her sister, they clashed at times, each having some very critical things to say about each other: Jane saw Lisa as being too frivolous, while Lisa felt her older sister to be needlessly uptight. As an example, when she had her first boyfriend—some kid named Brandon Chambers—it took four months before she would let him kiss her.

What, precisely, was going on in Jane's head? What need drove her to be so distant from everyone? Her family could never figure it out; and Jane, who was acting from instinct most of the time, could not have explained it to the. But the root of it was Jane's need to maintain purity and virtue, and the fear that other people would drag her down. From her parents and their rather zealous training, she had learned not to show any flaws whatsoever; now, when she looked at the people around her, she saw nothing but vice. Brandon and his friends, for instance: so obssessed with sex, all of them! Zach, unable to keep his mouth shut, completely uncaring of the effects of his words; Sajel, hiding despair with smirking sarcasm; and Brandon, who had never learned the value of patience. He was a nice guy, but, really, he could stand to learn from her. Jane didn't have those problems.

(Needless to say, when Brandon needled her about pride, Jane did not respond favorably.)

The turning point, for Jane, was when Brandon broke up with her early in junior year. At the time, she was miffed, and not a little angry: not 24 hours later, he was involved with that girl Meredith Levine (the one with the despair, lack of charity, hardness of heart), suggesting foul play somewhere along the line. And yet Brandon was not the type to play someone false; if he had broken up with her because a better opportunity came along, he would have told her. And yet the timing was so suspicious! Perhaps Meredith had manipulated him somehow? Whatever the case, Jane was clearly well shut of him; he had broken up with her for some stupid reason about how she wouldn't let him into her life. He and Meredith deserved each other! And yet, even after leaving her, Brandon continued to be as kind to her as he knew how; Meredith was scarcely less so. It was she, not Brandon, who came to Jane and apologized for the timing and confusion, and said she would still like to be Jane's friend. Jane found herself, not ostracized from Brandon's friends, but welcomed, at his encouragement. And, somewhere, lurking in her mind, was the suspicion that maybe Jane had made a mistake in letting him go. Brandon, despite all, had loved her. She wasn't sure she could say that truthfully about anyone else she knew.

As the year passed, Jane became a frequent visitor to the principal's office. Dr. Zelvetti was an authority figure, someone Jane felt she could trust; plus, despite being one of those shrinks, she never went out of her way to be critical or analytical about things, offering only those opinions Jane had actually asked for. (Later Jane realized just how much money she had saved by coming to her principal for therapy.) She also continued to be a part of Brandon's circle, and began to feel the disconnect in her life ever more strongly. She was surrounded by people who were flawed, almost depraved... And yet all of them seemed happier than she did. They had more and better friends, they had significant others, and (or, at least, so they claimed) they were enjoying sex. This Jane doubted. She didn't see how sex could possibly be enjoyable. What pleasure could possibly be derived from a man sticking his thing into a woman's etc? What an icky idea! (Jane, by now, had forgotten those stolen moments of masturbation in her youth, lost either deliberately or to the mists of time.) When she was married, Jane would obviously submit to it with good grace, because she wanted to have kids and because for some reason men seemed to be gagging for it, but she didn't think it was anything she would enjoy. Plus, at the rate she was going, Jane wasn't sure she'd ever get married. She was surrounded by three loving couples, all of whom seemed likely to be lifelong, and she had no idea how to get there. Dr. Zelvetti could tell her—actually, Jane could tell herself—that she wasn't really happy with the way her life was going. She wasn't sure what needed to change, only that something did.

So, on a warm day in May, Jane took her life in her hands by picking up a pen. She wrote her name on the consent form... And officially signed up for The Program. Dr. Zelvetti wasted no time, getting Jane naked in school during the last week of before finals.

Jane lasted two days before having a nervous breakdown in the girls' bathroom. If she had ever made any predictions about how she was going to spend the summer before her senior year of high school, "In the hospital" was not one of them.

Brandon, as always, came through for her. He was present, he was kind, he was solicitous; he watched over her all throughout the summer. They had dated; he was 'safe' to her. And yet, they had dated, and then broken up with alarming suddenness; Jane's unresolved feelings for him began to make themselves known. And, though he never acknowledged it, she could tell Brandon still bore feelings for her as well. The two of them never acted on it, but they knew; and, throughout that summer, Jane was in some ways closer to him than was his own girlfriend Meredith.

In late September, Jane was called upon again. The regulations of The Program were clear: once you got in, you must complete your week. Jane was not entirely put-together yet, despite weekly therapy sessions with Katrina Stanton, a psychologist of Dr. Zelvetti's recommendation; Brandon argued, unsuccessfully, that her re-enrollment be deferred or perhaps even canceled altogether. Nonetheless, Jane had progressed far enough to make it through the week. She had succeeded in admitting, to herself if no one else, that she was curious about sex. She had succeeded in admitting, to herself if no one else, that being perfectly virtuous might, in itself, be a mistake.

Under her friends' influence and with their support, Jane decided to go for it. In one hedonistic Thursday she lost her virginity—twice—and discovered that, in fact, she did enjoy sex, and that she did not feel flawed or dirty for doing so. There was no honor or virtue in denying her own body. She discovered that she was extremely sensitive; out of all her female friends, Jane is most prone to orgasm during intercourse. And, even more than that, she discovered that sex was not the all-consuming, obsessive thing she had feared it would be. She had had it, and now she was able to put it away in its proper place, and not be gagging for it all the time—which, ironically, was what she'd been when she was trying to deny it. Instead of bottling up her hormones, she let them out... And suddenly, she was much more comfortable in herself and in her own skin. By admitting her own flaws, she had, paradoxically, fixed them.

She also got a boyfriend out of it—actually, several, because Jane would later come to look at her week in The Program as the single moment which allowed the rest of her life to play out the way it did. The man who asked her out during her actual Program week was Jeff Gainesborough, whom she dated for nearly a year (and was occasionally intimate with, though they never had full-out penetrative sex—which, in the end, she somewhat regretted withholding from him!); during college, there were others. Those relationships never went anywhere, unfortunately, but Jane didn't mind; she was making friends, socializing, letting her hair down for the first time in her life. For the first time, people knew her; for the first time, people liked her. For the first time, she felt comfortable letting other people's flaws come near her; she no longer feared that they would be contagious. After all, sex had been contagious, and it had turned out to be a smart decision!

Nonetheless, Jane felt her aloneness keenly. While she had made new friends at Schweitzer, she didn't feel close enough to them to talk about the really important things; old habits of distance die hard. This, among other things, was what encouraged her to ask Derek to transfer to her college: she (well, both of them) would have an old friend near at hand, someone they could really talk to. She and Derek became very close friends, confidantes and trusted companions... But not romantic partners, which was what Jane missed the most. (She wondered on occasion if she and Derek could date successfully, but as her friends reminded him, getting into a relationship with a man half-dead was not a smart idea.) Her libido had been awakened; she had been with a man Biblically, and no matter how many cold showers she took or how much she masturbated (which was pretty frequently sometimes), she could never quench that feeling of aloneness. Sex with yourself had nothing on sex with another person. But the boys at college were all pretty immature; how would she ever find someone?

The answer came in the form of Hugh Stratton, an investment banker from her church. And after they dated for a while, Jane found herself in the midst of a curious quandary: where once she had pulled away from Brandon, refusing to let him become close or intimate with her (in any manner, physically or otherwise), now Hugh was doing the same to her! But in a watershed conversation, Jane convinced him to open up, to take a chance on sharing with her; and, in a watershed moment whose difficulty Jane can vouch for personally, he did. Deliberately, they scheduled their wedding to take place a year to the day after that conversation.

Jane Myers, now Jane Stratton, has come a long way from the shy, uptight teenager who refused to kiss Brandon Chambers. Though she still finds it important to retain her virtue, she has also learned to take a deep breath and keep the consequences in perspective. (She was certainly willing to seduce Hugh the day he proposed to her!) She and her husband are the most financially stable of all of Brandon's friends, and have been pressing financial assistance on them (with limited success). They, like the Cranes, are beginning to think about welcoming children into the world. Jane is content today, having found her place in life and the right person to share it with. While there will doubtlessly be challenges in the future, she feels equal to them, for she has friends and family—Hugh, Derek, Brandon, Meredith, Zach and Christa, Sajel, even Arie—with which to meet them. She has learned that no one—not even her—need face those challenges alone.

Jane, despite her unusual, based-on-a-real-person appearance, was extremely easy to find pictures for: I literally tripped over these on some vintage site, and they are perfect for her. (It's almost scary how accurate they are.)

• Jane, with trademark smile
• Jane, showing off her figure