No, the name didn't
stick, and thank goodness. When I was eighteen I was traveling around Peru with
a bunch of Aussies when it occurred to me that I possessed the rare opportunity
to portray myself as whoever I wanted to be. So I called myself "Kit"
and postured as a "Cowgirl." Looking back and wincing about the
mistakes of my past doesn't change the fact that I am still that same adventure
seeking, story chasing, girl-child just trying to follow in the impossible
footsteps of my favorite fictional heroines. I may never be Martha Gellhorn or
Mark Twain, but I try to approach life similarly as best I can. Of course I
love humans, stories, and travel, and started at BYU studying folklore as a sociocultural
anthropologist. Eventually I jumped ship and pursued an area of study that I
thought was more specific to my interests, but I never lost that original love
of meeting new people and learning new, undiscovered stories. So far I've
traveled to India, Costa Rica, Peru, Thailand, Laos, Japan, and Brazil; and I
don't know if I'll ever want to stop.
I love Renaissance
literature and sing praises to John Donne for making me laugh in a way I hadn't
since Chaucer came and went. Of course, Shakespeare is an all-time favorite and
his Tempest,"We are such stuff /As dreams are made on,
and our little life /Is rounded with a sleep," is a flawless way to
end a literally legendary career.
I know some people who
are religious about their preferences when it comes to ebooks v. print, and I
think I'm secretly one of them. I like to keep an open mind about available
mediums but an ebook website will never give you the sensation of vellichor the
way a bookstore will.
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