#4: Kaitlyn H.

Old is a state of mind and I’m old. My mind is grandma status.

Kaitlyn

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STORIES

What are 3 things on your bucket list?

Honestly, I want to go on a long backpacking trip somewhere in the world, doesn’t even matter where. I would also just like to live in a different country for a longer period of time. I’d give myself at least a year or two to be really immersed in the culture. Third thing: I want to meet Willow Smith and then propose. I love her. Like ‘Willow, I already know you and I feel like you know me.’

What would you say your best feature is?

I feel like my openness would be one of my proudest things about myself. Honestly, open to whatever the world has to offer. Those are things that even people around me point out and it makes me feel good that they see that. Physically, all. I’m good with it all, I don’t have one thing. What am I supposed to say? My butt? I just love my butt.

When was the last time you felt truly loved by someone else?

I feel like my friend Lily comes to mind because we have been through so much. So many stages of life together. Seeing each other grow into who we are now. Yeah, I just feel like she sees me. To each other we can just speak our truth and lift each other up and hold space when we need to. Yes, I love that woman.

When was the last time you cried?

Oh my god. I cried because when my mom came to visit, we were saying that my mom is a hair stylist so she’s done my hair my entire life. I’ve never been to another person for my hair. My mom would probably cry for that too, she’s not about that, or maybe just get mad a t me. My sister just randomly said “You know Kaitlyn, I’ve thought about when mom isn’t around, like when she passes, I’ve just thought about how terrible that would be when we have to go to somebody else to do our hair.” I was like ‘Why would you say that?’ I have not, surprisingly, thought that before and I don’t think I would want to get my hair done again after that. I think anything else would be self-done.

What is a harsh truth you choose to ignore but know you shouldn’t? 

I feel like this is the whole theme of this. But, I am capable of so much. It’s like I push myself but I push myself in a negative way. I know what I can do but I also enjoy my time to chill, which is part of the process but it’s hard. I feel like even my chill time can be a little bit more balanced with what I want my life to be like. I think about even just wanting to chill and watch TV and I’m like “I could be reading a book right now that’s doing something for me”. 

What is your happiest memory?

Probably my childhood as a whole. Running in the woods with my cousins and doing whatever we wanted. Being little wild children. I feel like even that has played into my personality now. I was given the space to do that.

My childhood was so good to me. Free. Being in nature, that was all we did. Outside, living in the country with the critters. All the critters. So good.

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PERSPECTIVES AND IDEAS

If money wasn’t an issue, what would you choose for a career? 

I would be riding around in a sprinter van with my dog. In a perfect world, Pierre would be there too. I would be making jewelry and doing creative things.

What do you religiously/spiritually believe in?

I believe in a force. I believe there’s a bigger picture at play. Maybe it’s the Universe. I believe in the universe and that it takes you where you need to go and brings you things that you need.

Do you believe in a life purpose? If so, what is yours? 

Yes. Even though I’m a Leo who doesn’t totally love the spotlight in a way, I do but I don’t, I feel like one of my purposes is to share. That can be sharing what I create, sharing experiences and knowledge. I feel like that’s something I feel drawn to do and I want to do more. It’s just weird living in a world where social media is the biggest way of sharing when it’s really hard for me to keep up with that.

How has your perspective on the world changed over time?

I feel like it has broadened. I think growing up, especially in high school, I was more so in my little bubble. I would love to be more knowledgeable on everything that is happening in the world because there are a lot of bad bad things. But I feel like the connecting thing. Like, we’re all connected. We’re all going through the same things in life almost but just at different paces and in different stages. I feel more connected and I think all that started from yoga and a spiritual practice in general makes you see people from a different light and try to understand their perspectives on it.

How do you define art?

To just create in general and see something transform. It’s not result-oriented, I try to get myself out of that and be more process oriented through the entire thing so you’re actually more present in the entire thing. I just love creating anything in general. Like ‘What can I do with these hands? What can we make now?’

Do you think humanity is headed in the right or wrong direction?

I think right. With our generation. The more we grow and connect with other people and learn about different perspectives. I think even just seeing the world differently. Totally different mindsets. My parents, our mindsets are totally different. It’s kind of crazy how different you can be from the people who raised you. I think people are looking into life more and finding deeper meanings behind it and I hope that correlates to how we treat others and the planet because if we’re talking like that, who wants to believe that it’s just going down from here? I feel like that’s an impending doom I don’t want to believe in.

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Kaitlyn’S BITS OF WISDOM

When you prioritize what you want and need in your life, you come across the right people. You just follow your own little path.

Live life with an open mind and not put pressure on yourself to be one way or another. Just let yourself go into whatever you’re creating.

What is one thing that is so life changing that you think everyone should experience at least once in their life? 

Honestly, yoga. If people took that route and didn’t just look at it physically like to ‘tone you up’ or whatever. If you go deeper, you can really unlock things within yourself. That’s like taking however much time to just breathe and move in ways that feel good. It’s like meditation but you’re moving. Meditation does come in many forms so that is a good example. That has seriously changed my life. There were many things I had problems with, even in college. 

I had a huge fear of public speaking. I couldn’t get over myself. It was debilitating. I couldn’t really talk, it was hard for me to speak. The main thing that got me out of that space was yoga, essential oils and meditating. All I wanted to do was be proud of myself. That was all I wanted, to show myself that I can do it and I just want to be proud. At the end of it, I couldn’t stop smiling.

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REFLECTIONS

I met Kaitlyn during the spring of 2021. We both worked at a beach restaurant at the time. From the first week I knew her, it was obvious we had a lot of similarities and an instant connection was made.

During the interview, I felt such a deep connection and understanding with her. We were in such flow that day. After the interview, we grabbed some good ole tangerine wheat ale and ended up dancing around naked on the beach with the moon light. Pure magic.

Some of my favorite bits of wisdom and reflection I acquired from her interview is her definition of art and optimistic view on the direction of where the world is heading now.

As a creative artist, her definition of art is unique and adds depth to her creations. The idea of art as a ‘process oriented’ activity rather than a result oriented’ activity stuck with me in very inspiring ways. To be able to fully immerse yourself in the process of creating and allowing it to grow and transform as its own creation is something thata dds beauty to it. Since our interview, I started being mindful about my experience in the process, rather than being so hung up on what i was trying to achieve for it to look like in the first place.

The optimistic view on the world is extremely refreshing. It seems that most people have a negative view on where we are heading because it’s more “realistic”. An optimistic view is strongly correlated with naivety and oblivion almost. But that’s not always the case. Choosing to see the light when it gets dark is important if we want to enrich our experience. One can choose what kind of light they view the world in.

From the day of the interview to today, so much has happened. A full circle.

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Some of the answers above have been paraphrased very slightly to remove excessive rambles in order to provide a smoother read. If you’d like to hear their unedited responses, you can do so by listening to their audio tapes linked at the end of each answers. If you’d like to listen to all audio tapes, you can do so by clicking here. Links will redirect you to instagram reels in another tab.