Listening to Peers or Peering Within

Letter #11 from The Intuitive Queen of The Intuition Empire (Jennifer R. Young)
My Dear Intuitive Readers,
Hello again! I am lazy this week. It’s cold out in Delaware. So very cold. And I have been laying low and focused on surviving the snow. My prayers and positive thoughts go out to friends and family in the West coast who are battling fires, mourning the loss of loved ones, and trying to rebuild their lives after losing their homes and communities.
I can’t change the tragic things that happen in my life or in other people’s lives, but I can do my best to send positive love and light into the universe to help balance it out. And tell you positive stories to uplift you if only for a brief moment in time.
So, lend me your ear (or your eyes actually) as I present a new challenge to following our intuition in all areas of our lives. What if your intuition is telling you something so strongly—and yet all of your peers and friends even—are saying you are absolutely wrong? What then? Let’s dive in.
My Hero: Winston Churchill Followed His Intuition
Winston Churchill is one of my heroes. For his leadership, his passion for the causes he held dear to his heart, and for his lovely art and inspiring words. My favorite quote in fact is by him and it’s gotten me through countless challenging moments in my lifetime:
“If you are going through hell, keep going.” -Winston Churchill
While watching the first hour of the new documentary out on Netflix with my teenage sons, something new about my hero dawned on me: Winston Churchill followed his intuition at all costs. Even when his peers questioned him or made fun of him.
For example, Churchill knew for six years the coming of the war. He told others via his writing and then in Parliament in England that Hitler was lying and had no intention of keeping peace.
His peers thought he was wrong; many said Hitler would keep the peace like he promised. When Churchill joined parliament in 1935, his peers thought he was pontificating to get attention. No matter what his peers said, for years, Churchill stuck to his intuition. While tragically he was right, ironically, all those people for years who had doubted him—realized his intuition was spot on and it was time to act. That’s when he became Prime Minister in 1940 and rose to become an inspirational leader not just to England, but to many of us all over the world.
Well, my intuition doesn’t speak to me about politics, and I have no desire to become prime minister or government official of any kind.
I do, however, strongly believe that, despite my peers and friends’ beliefs and opinions about my life—ultimately, I need to follow my own intuition and not that of my peers.
I’ll give you an example.
In 1993, I was a sophomore in college at State University of New York (SUNY) Albany and I had three suite mates. I also had three jobs: a resident assistant (RA) so I could get a free dorm room; a grocery store clerk to earn book money; and a tech salesperson at a retail store to cover my food and spending money.
Let’s say, I was busy and money was tight. I was the child of a single mom and my goal was to graduate with as few student loans as possible! Not to mention, my mom raised me not to be afraid of hard work—or multi-tasking.
My great aunt Katherine lived in Orlando, Florida. She never had kids and decided to take me under her wing. That spring she flew me down for spring break, and put me up in a hotel near hear assisted living building in Lake Eola. Then, my Aunt Katherine took me to the Disney World parks. I went to Walt Disney World, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, etc.
I'd been to the parks many times before. However this time, I did something different. At Epcot, while I didn’t realize it then, I spent the day following my intuition. I was doing a little manifesting and some intuitive shopping.
When I went back to my college after break, I showed my roommates what I'd bought at Epcot:
Postcards of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and Mont-Saint-Michel (an island in Normandy, France); a full-length door poster of King Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein Castle, and pictures of Salzburg, Austria, and London, England.
As I was hanging up my souvenirs on my dorm room walls, my suitemates, puzzled, asked me why I chose these items.
I told them these were all the places I was going to go see someday.
“I thought it would be easier to buy the pictures of everywhere in Epcot so that I could enjoy them now, before I go and take pictures of those places myself,” I said smiling.
They laughed at me. Yes, my friends laughed!
One of them said, “You have three jobs and are barely making it. You are never going to go to these places!” they said. “Sorry, Jenn. Out of all of us you are the one returning bottles to get the deposit money to pay for your car’s gas. Going to Europe is just not possible.”
I just smiled and said, “We’ll see.”
Positive Thinking, Manifestation, and a Dose of Intuition
I like to dance to the beat of my own drum. I listen to my voice within. Even back in college when I wasn’t very sober, I had one hell of an intuition.
My roommates were convinced I could never see those places. I knew otherwise, I just didn’t know how I would get there at the time. Regardless, I didn’t care who told me I was wrong.
However, I knew, like one of the people I admired, Winston Churchill, that with a little positive thinking, some manifestation and a dose of following my intuition, by God, I’d get there.
After all, Churchill said:

Well, that fall, my junior year, my new roommate Lisa asked if I wanted to go to London with her to a fun “very social” exchange program.
I got excited and called my mom. She told me she would only approve me going on an exchange program if I applied to Oxford University! Her manager at New York State Electric and Gas in corporate communications, Ken Hooper, was British and graduated from Oxford. His daughter had gotten accepted into the exchange program via SUNY Brockport and loved the experience. My mom said that was the only exchange program that she’d approved of!
I was shocked and fearful. First off, I knew that an academic program at Oxford would require lots of work and studying; not like the fun London one my friend signed up for. Not to mention—how would I get into Oxford University? I grew up on Oxford Place and was surrounded by roads like Manchester, Mansfield and other English names as a child. But I never imagined I'd live there.
But, not knowing if I’d get in, or if I did how I’d pay for it, I submitted my application and took a leap of faith.
And guess what? I got in! I was accepted to go January of 1994 and live for a trimester at Oxford University! Oxford is made up of 30+ colleges. I went to Hertford College, lived in a flat, and was assigned two tutors. That fall, I worked extra hours as a Student Assistant in the Residence Hall office and had two jobs (Brookstone and the Grand Union). My intuition told me to buy a Eurail pass before I left the country. It was $500 but it would give me unlimited rail travel for 4 weeks!
After the first trimester, I loved it so much I signed up to stay a second trimester. And my “spring break” between trimesters was, you guess it—four weeks! I used that pass I'd bought ahead and my flatmate Carol (also from New York) and I went to seven countries and stayed at cheap B&B and youth hostels.
Where did we go? I won’t tell you every stop, but I will tell you….we went to France and saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, and more. We toured Mount-Saint-Michel and hiked to the very top. We went to Salzburg, Austria, and did the Sound of Music Tour and visited Mozart’s birthplace and childhood home. We went to Ireland and all over Italy including Rome, Florence, the Italian Rivera, and even Pompeii. Oh, and Germany? We not only went to King Ludwig’s Castle in Bavaria, but we hiked around it too and saw his childhood castle as well. And England?
Yep—From the lake district to Portsmouth, from the Isle of White to Bath and Stonehenge, I saw it all. When I should have been studing in the library and writing my ten-page papers for my tutors, I would go on spontaneous field trips alone. I went to London many times, saw plays, and toured Churchill’s WWII bunker where he spent time during the war. It was the building where he would stand on the roof to see the bombings and to keep an eye on his soldiers and beloved city.




And my roommates who said I’d never go to those places?
Well, I mailed them post cards from all the places that they said I’d never see, plus all the additional places that I visited and signed them, “Wish you were here!”
I loved Oxford so much they agreed to let me stay a second trimester. And since I was paying SUNY Brockport tuition and not Oxford prices, and they were a trimester college – I earned enough credit in six months at Oxford in 1994 to graduate early (3 ½ years total), on my birthday that December.
Staying that extra semester was a good choice but it did, however, present me with obstacles. I ran out of food money for food the second trimester. My mom wrote me a letter saying, “You have no savings left. I can’t afford to send you any more money for food. If you want to eat, you had better get a job!”
I called her from a pay phone (I used a phone card! Pre-cell phone days were rough, people). I had to point out that I did not possess a “work permit.” My mother advised me to “find a solution.”
So, I got a job. To learn how I did it and what good things came as a result of that job—sign up for my blog! It's free. I’ll send it out a special edition to subscribers only this weekend!
Sunshine and Butterflies
You know, I’ve been thinking about it lately. I’ve had an amazing life. Yes, I’ve encountered a lot of challenges. And I faced a lot of dark times, especially during my childhood. However, it’s taught me to be resilient. To have compassion for myself and for others. And to rely on my faith and trust that I can always recover from darkness by finding the light. Most of all it has taught me to listen to my inner voice.
Life isn’t always sunshine and butterflies. But there is always something positive waiting for us—just around the corner—if we don’t give up! No matter how hard things get, just keep looking for the next miracle and it will appear.
Well, if you are still not convinced that signing up for my blog via email is a good choice—you will miss out on my British job story. However, you can stay tuned for next week’s blog: Intuitive Travel!
Here is a preview:

That’s all for now. Until next week my friends.
Songs I listened to While Writing This Blog
1. “Close to You,” by the Carpenters
2. “Bette Davis Eyes,” by Kim Carnes
3. “Stay,” by Chad Lawson
Love,
Jenn (The Intuitive Queen of The Intuition Empire, aka Jenn 2.0, fully oxigenated)

