Did you know that 85% of people ages 18-35 that begin reading blog posts, don’t make it past the second paragraph?

That’s so sad!!! Also, it seems pretty extreme to me, but I have to at least admit that sometimes I don’t exactly always finish what I started. Blame it on my ADHD.

Still reading? I win!!! Ha! 1-2 sentence paragraphs. That, my friends, is how you beat the system. That sounds a bit negative though, let’s actually call it “thinking outside the box”—something I’ve learned a lot about in the last little while.

I have to come clean—I actually made that statistic up. In high school, I learned about “hooks”, you know, that introductory sentence that really grabs the reader? My favorite was the “interesting statistic” hook. The only problem is that I hate researching, so usually I ended up just making something up (sorry Mrs. Martin). In college, they told me to throw everything I learned about writing in high school out the window. They said it was cliché, and that REAL writers don’t need that crap, whatever that means.

This is where my transformation from being an overly emotional teenager with a flare for the dramatic, to being a refined and reserved woman of higher education, began. For me, it was the key to growing in maturity; I went from needing to put it all out on the table, 100% of the time (I’m talking feelings here people, and lots of ‘em) to understanding the art of using a few words to say a lot. In college “hooks” became theses, and you NEVER directly addressed the reader, especially with your question. You went from being explicit about your point, to being kinda hipster about it. Know what I mean? Like:

“look at me! I’m a really good writer, with a really good question, but I would never actually tell you that question because that would be far too mainstream.”

For me, the figurative transformation from “hook” to “thesis” is far from complete, but hey, life’s a trip. Also (sidebar), I still pretty much feel like just about everything can be metaphor for life if you search hard enough for the parallel. I think that understanding this idea is pretty important to really getting me.

Actually, let me back up a bit, I’m Kathryn Jean Hornibrook (aka. Kat, aka. KJ, aka. Kage, aka. Kath, aka. Kattyj, aka. you get the point). Sorry for jumping all over the place, but I actually wasn’t kidding about the ADHD. I’m Canadian originally, but I was half-raised in New York. I have loved Jesus Christ for as long as I can remember, and because of that, I love people. Sometimes I care too much—I can’t help it! I just love, LOVE!

I attended two colleges in my four years and studied Art and Communication at both. Houghton college in Western, NY for two years, and Westmont College, in Santa Barbara, California for the other two. I also played varsity soccer for both, but I’ve had seven concussions, and because of that my playing career was cut short for my final year. Without soccer, my senior year was different than I had hoped and imagined (to say the least). It was a tough and unexpected loss, but taught me a lot about life and relationships, and it actually helped me identify my truest passions (keep reading!). Before this past year I would have described myself simply as an Athlete, who liked to take some pictures. Now, I think that using words that put me in a box is stupid. At this point, i’ll, just call myself “me” and let you decide the rest.

But that doesn’t actually tell you anything—I love art, especially portrait photography, and I play the guitar and the saxophone. I have played a lot of sports my entire life, and both of my parents are ex-professional athletes (pressure, am I right?). I love people, like I said, and I love creativity and self-expression through visual fine art-forms, but also other equally as important art-forms which include, but are not limited to: wardrobe, hairstyles, physical movement (DANCE), music, food, writing, home-movies, horticulture etc. Throw it on the list, call it self-expression, and I’m DOWN! I love the earth, and I need wide-open spaces, which is why the West Coast is a perfect fit for me. The ocean is my favorite and if I could be any mythical creature, I would choose mermaid. I’m a summer girl—I’ll be happy anywhere with sunshine & bare feet. I’m 22 and I am, in fact, sad, confused, and lonely in the best way. It’s miserable and magical!

I could say a lot more and I probably could have said a lot less, and if my fake statistic were true, I would have lost you a long time ago. The moral of the story is that I graduated in May (!!!!) and since then, I’ve moved back in with my parents and my little sister, Emily, in Ithaca, New York. I decided that since I’m quite interested in people and documenting them, and because, like I mentioned above, I just love LOVE, that working with a well established wedding photographer for the Summer/Fall would be a fantastic opportunity for growth. Enter, Mary Dougherty! It’s been about a month since we’ve started, and I love what I’m learning about being a full time wedding photographer, but also being a full time mom, a full time wife, and a full-time dance party-er. Mary’s pretty much the new Oprah, minus the talk show, the frequent weight fluctuation, and (no offense) the billions of dollars. But the Bible says that money is the root of all-evil, so snaps for Mary! (Am I right?) I’m so excited to be working at MDP over the next few months and learning more about eventually doing this on my own. Until then, I’ll keep writing these blog posts and maybe say something inspiring every once in a while.

Okay, so the cat’s out of the bag, maybe college didn’t exactly turn me into “a refined and reserved woman of higher education”. But I’m okay with that. It’s all a work in progress. One thing that I learned in both high school AND college, is that conclusions are very important, because the reader will most likely only remember what you say at the beginning of your paper, and the end. The middle is obsolete. But I pretty much put all the important stuff in the middle so I guess I’m the worst. I got nothin’. Bye!

Jake (who second shot with me in 2013+2014) took this awesome picture of Kat and can be currently found wandering around California