About Me — Katrina Paulson
Following life’s curious adventures through writing
I consider myself to be creative but trying to explain who I am, always makes me draws a blank. For your sake, I’ll do my best.
Family and Childhood
I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. I have a love/hate relationship with the city, but so far I’m still here. The biggest contributing factor for not leaving is that family means everything to me, and most of mine are in Portland.
My parents were — are — soulmates, although my dad passed away on December 15, 2020 — two weeks ago. Nothing is worse than cancer. Thankfully, if anything, our grief has brought my family even closer together. Especially since one of my brothers and I live in our childhood home with Mom. Speaking of my brothers, you might find it interesting that my older brothers are identical twins, and my younger sister is adopted from China — it’s normal for me, but people tend to have lots of questions about it. Maybe I’ll write about it sometime.
Anyway, I was never one of those kids who did well in school which sucked since all three of my siblings excelled. Mom always told me, “what you don’t have in book smarts, you make up for with your common sense.” Years later I realized I’m dyslexic.
She was right though, I’ve always been pragmatic and am great at solving problems — just not in school. But I also spend a lot of time in my own head and am prone to what my friends call hermitting — going quiet for sometimes months, before reappearing socially. I’m one of the people quarantine doesn’t phase at all, I prefer it actually. (I like socializing, it’s just draining for me and I need time to recharge.)
One of the best things my parents did was expose me to anything I developed an interest in, and some things I didn’t know about. The only rule was once I committed to a class, or sports season, I had to see it through to the end.
As a result, I participated in a variety of sports, art classes, acting classes, choir, piano lessons, even sky diving. All this lead to great social skills, a willingness to try new things, and taught me about commitment and time management.
I’m 33 and Writing
Most of my twenties and late teens were spent experiencing life as much as possible. Like sharing a lapdance with my grandma, having brain surgery, and partaking in my fair share of irresponsibility. I’ve spent the last four years paying the consequences but am now coming out of it untangled.
Let’s see, I started writing this year thanks to stumbling upon a box of old journals. Following my curiosity ended up being one of the best decisions of my life. Now that I’m writing, I see how everything I’ve done in life has pointed me toward it. If I paid attention to what’s going on inside me, instead of focusing on everyone else, I may have noticed all the signs pointing me this way. Life is funny sometimes.
In fact, I write a lot about life and the curious adventures it brings. I also write about philosophy, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking with a splash of personal essays. Generally speaking, I write and hope it helps people not be jerks to each other.
The way I see it, there’s enough hardship in life without projecting our pain onto other people. Don’t you agree?
Final Thoughts
I’ve probably forgotten something important. If so, I’m sure I’ll remember and write a piece about it and you can read it then — or just ask me in the comments, then I’ll answer and write a piece about it.
Most importantly, I hope my writing connects with you in some way — or at least provides moments for you to become curious about life. That would make writing worth it for me.
If you want at least one curiosity every Friday, you can sign up for my newsletter too — I’m a writer, you know I had to ask. Which reminds me, here are some of my top-performing and favorite articles if you’re in a binge reading mood. Either way, this is me. Thank you for reading my words. I appreciate you more than you know.
