A Little Bit About Me

Hi guys!

I suppose I should introduce myself a little more than the few tabs on my website give you. What better time to do it than on re-launch day?

First of all, welcome! My name is Kristen, or Otter, depending on where you met me haha. This blog is going to be covering a myriad of topics from depression to marriage to Marvel to anything in between! My personal favorite are my poems, and there will be quite a few of those. I created this place with the intention of having a space to share my art, my experience, and to hopefully relate to others who have gone through similar things in their lives. This is a place of honesty, full transparency, and I refuse to shy away from uncomfortable topics. If you’ve even read this far, I appreciate you and think you’re rad. 😀

Now, for the introduction part! This is going to be a brief snapshot of everythinggg, we can deep dive into the details later. I might zoom past some things leaving you wondering where the rest of the story is, but I really am trying to keep this as brief as possible while still giving you a highlight of everything that’s ever happened to me haha! If there’s anything you’d like me to talk about right away on the blog, let me know in the comments!! And away we go…

In October 1996, I was “discovered” by my parents in the glamorous location of a Subway bathroom. My mom was 17 at that time. My estimated arrival was July of 1997, so my parents scheduled their courthouse wedding for June 23rd. I always say I must have wanted to see them get married because I crashed the party on June 18th and was there to see the whole thing. It’s a weird thing when you have no memories of them ever being apart, but your birth certificate shows your parents unmarried. It’s easy to remember their anniversary, though, and the number of years they’ve been married is the same as my age. (Sorry to my sister who doesn’t have it so easy)

Speaking of my sister, I’ve got one of those and she was born in March of 2000 (another easy number to remember haha!). For most of my life, she was my favorite person in the universe which is kind of a weird thing for an older sister to say. But our roles are kind of reversed. I was the one always trying to hang out with her and match outfits, you get the gist…unless you’re an only child, in which case, I’m half jealous and half sad for you. ❤

Anyways, back to me. Early on, I wanted to be a veterinarian, but eventually it morphed into wanting to be in the CIA, and not in the way a little girl dreams of being a spy. I was so serious about it and researched it and read books about former spies. For a period of time, I would go on the CIA website every single day and read over the job descriptions and the mission statements. I planned to major in Political Science in college so I could get right in (and I did major in PS…for a semester). When I was in early high school, I was selected, by merit of my academic standing, by the National Student Leadership Conference to participate in their meeting that summer. I was insanely excited. I was going to get to fly out to Washington DC, stay in a dorm room, and go to different classes and speeches led by national security officials. I would have earned college credit, knowledge for my future career, and been able to put it on my resume. Unfortunately, my dad lost his job at the time. About a week or so before I was set to go, I had to back out due to finances. It was a big bummer, but I moved on rather quickly, “it is what it is” was kind of my vibe. I still held on to my dream of being in the CIA, I even wrote my senior paper on the Agency. That would all shift very soon, however. Back to that in a minute.

I found this picture from the checklist for the National Student Leadership Conference. This is how close I was to going.

I was a weird kid, well, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t made some decisions in first grade that followed me through elementary to high school…(yikes, right?) I started at Hope Christian Academy in first grade and I’ll probably go deeper into my time there at a later date. School was my favorite place in the whole world. I was so, so shy outside of school. Until senior year, I couldn’t ask for help in the grocery store or even ask for ketchup at the restaurant, but at school, I wasn’t shy at all, it was my happy place and why wouldn’t it be? There was only about 60 students K-12. It was tiny, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was actually fully homeschooled in 6-7th grade, and partially homeschooled 8th-11th grade through Hope. I spent 7th grade in Texas, much to my dismay, and it’s also where my old friend Depression decided to come on in and stay a while, so that was fun. However, 7th grade solidified my status as a bookworm for all of eternity. I read more books that year than some people probably read in their lifetime. I remember going to the library arms full and coming out of my room a few days later asking my mom if we could go back. She’d ask about the 8 books already in my room, and I’d tell her I was already finished. When it came time for me to carry a purse, my #1 qualification was if it was big enough to carry a book with me everywhere I went, and that I did. Family function going a little slow? I’d find a quiet corner and read whatever book had my attention that day. It got to the point that if I was going to be punished, my parents would threaten to take my books away. Yeah. I was that girl. You get it, I love books, they love me (or at least I hope they do).

Mid-senior year, I became unlikely friends with one of the boys in my grade. We had had a rocky past, and I’ll leave that story for a later time. Fast forward a little bit, we start dating the summer after graduation, get engaged in the winter, and get married the next August. A year and 9 months later, we’re officially divorced. 0-60 and back to 0 in no time, I know. There will be plenty of time to get into the nitty gritty of that later on the blog, but for now, I’m going to leave you there and move on. 21 and divorced was NOT the plan I had had for my life, needless to say.

The year after graduation, I went to Century College. This is where I had my first acting class – only as an elective and I absolutely fell in love with acting. I didn’t even know I was good at it, I mean, hello, shy bookworm here, why would I get on stage? Well, I actually had been on stage, even acted, but those shows were for an audience who had known me my whole life and I didn’t really get into it. Only as much as one does in middle and high school without being one of those theatre kids, although that wasn’t even an option as we had no theatre classes at school, and our play selection was….quaint? To say it nicely. Anyways, the girl who didn’t talk in class got on stage to do her first assignment – a monologue. Lo and behold, I chose Loki and Natasha’s back and forth scene in The Avengers. While up there, I had no qualms about channeling the characters and by the looks on my classmates faces, I did a good job at being the sneer villain. I fell in love with acting on the spot and knew I wanted to be a part of that in some capacity someday.

I graduated from Century with an Associate of Arts in General Studies after only one year thanks to PSEO credits I had taken in high school. Since then, I have graduated from Valor Christian College with two Associate of Applied Science degrees in Pastoral Leadership and Communications and Media, consecutively. Sometimes, I get down on myself for not having a Bachelor’s degree by now, but I have realized that I have 3 degrees and have only done 3 years of study post-high school and with all my credits, I could probably get a BA in a single year. I know I’m 24, but other people don’t get degrees until they’re 40, and some even later. There doesn’t need to be a timeline for my success. Though, I would like to go back to school very soon. I just have to officially decide what I want my degree to be in.

Ok, Kristen, you’ve told us almost everything except why you’re doing what we’re reading; writing. Right, right. As many children do, I wanted a diary I could journal in everyday. However, my journal was a little different. I had this series called the Lily Series by Nancy Rue, and in the books, Lily has a Talking to God journal. This was something I very much wanted to have and so, with the diary I had only written a few entries in, I started my own. I was so religious about it. I wrote in it every night even when I had nothing to say, it was my time to spend with God and I took it very seriously. I loved to be able to take the thoughts swimming around in my head and put them to paper; it always helped me make sense of my feelings. It’s kind of like a big ball of yarn is constantly swirling in my head and writing helps me form it into a nice line I can decipher. Writing always came naturally to me. Most of my classmates dreaded papers, but for me, it was one of my favorite assignments, especially when it was to write something personal or opinionated. I have been commended by many professors for my writing skills. Whenever I felt deep emotions, I’d just jot down what I was feeling in whatever notebook was nearby. Most of the time, these were not intended to be shared. But sometimes it just flowed so well, and sometimes, the storm in my mind would clear and I would have this precise verbiage in my head that would nag me until I put it down on paper. This is where most of my poetry comes from. It’s a mix of deep emotion and inspiration striking. I always say this gift isn’t my own ability. I truly believe when I write with inspiration, it’s God giving me the ability and creativity to form words in such a unique fashion. There is no glory in it for me, I’m just a tool. That’s truly what I believe about my writing.

Now, we all just looooove to talk about 2020, don’t we? (sarcasm) Well, for me, 2020 was probably the best year of my life – outside of losing my incomes, dealing with a global pandemic, gross government overreach, and the rest of that mess. In 2020, I met and married my Doomie. We met in an online discord server through a mobile game I don’t even know why I started playing. We had nothing else to do during lockdown so we talked. And talked. And talked. We had video chats that lasted literal days and we learned so much about each other. We started dating in May, he moved me out to Illinois in August, and we eloped in October. It was fast and amazing and fantastic and crazy and I loved it all. He’s my soulmate and I couldn’t be happier.

As for now, we own a house, we have 2 kittens and an old lady cat, we have solid jobs, and so many plans for the future (none of which involve having children, I know you were thinking it, but no). I can’t wait to go on more of this crazy journey with him and I thank God everyday for dropping him into my life.

Well, if you made it this far, I hope you feel like you know me a little better! I’m a bit of an open book, so ask me anything! I hope to see you right back here next Sunday!

With all my love,

The Happy Otter

Advertisement