About Me — Kelly Paige
A Quiet Voice with Stories to Tell
Let me introduce myself.. Although I don’t remember how it started, I seem to have always been a writer. My fourth grade teacher noticed that one or two of my weekly spelling sentences had a continuing storyline and he encouraged me to write a “radio play” which we later recorded on very old-school style recording equipment and played back to the class on a cassette player. I wrote a book of poems that my mother typed up and gave to family members one Christmas shortly after the divorce when money was tight and it was hard for her to buy gifts for other family members. And after learning about rainbows in fifth grade science I wrote a children’s story about a little bunny discovering how rainbows are made. I illustrated it, too, but my grandpa (an actual artist and medical illustrator by trade) dashed all hopes I ever had of becoming an artist by looking at my larger than life rabbit on the page (I hadn’t yet developed the concept of perspective in drawing) and told me I should stick to drawing dead things. But I still had stories to tell.
Let me introduce myself.. As a kid born in the early 1970s, my brother and I were the first kids in the neighborhood whose parents were divorced. I remember there being certain kids who were no longer allowed to play with us when that happened (yet years later their parents ended up divorced, too). I rarely spoke in school; I could already read when I started kindergarten but I was painfully shy and when I did speak it was barely above a whisper. Now we have fancy terms such as “selective mute” for kids like this and we make accommodations for them; it wasn’t the case then. But Fridays were great because the MGM (“Mentally Gifted Minors”) classroom bus would arrive and I got to spend the whole day in it with a selected group of students up to 5th grade and I was the only kindergartener. We got to learn about dinosaurs, fossils, outer space, and oh, the entertaining stories I have to tell!
Let me introduce myself.. The three year nightmare called middle school began, and although I didn’t have the knowledge of it at the time, so did my struggles with depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia that still rear their ugly head now that I’m in my 50s. Writing became a way to cope, to escape, and to become all the things I wished I were. In the words on the page I traveled to the places I’d read about, experienced my first innocent romances, rode a Vespa like the girl in the Depeche Mode video, and found some confidence. In high school I had my first audience of readers; I took a study hall not to do homework but to have a free period just to write. Each day a faithful group of students read the latest installment of whatever teen drivel I was working on. I had stories to tell.
Let me introduce myself.. I am a teacher. Never was that on my list of what I was going to be when I grew up. An artist, a journalist, an archaeologist, forensic anthropologist, FBI agent, probation/parole officer were just the major pursuits God closed the door on, and blessed me by opening every door when I decided to become a teacher instead. Thirty difficult but incredibly rewarding years later I have stories that I hope will inspire and encourage fellow teachers in our shared struggles and joys.
Let me introduce myself.. I am a Christian. Growing up we were “cultural Christians” celebrating the traditional holidays, but the church-going stopped sometime after the divorce. My mother became agnostic and my brother an atheist. I, however, always longed to somehow know God and became saved at age 32 in a quite literal “burning-bush” moment of my own. But please, don’t let that deter you from my writing; if you question faith I have powerful stories to tell.
Let me introduce myself.. I am a wife, now for the third time (I certainly never thought I’d be saying that). Even though it’s not the fairytale love story I’d dreamed about as I kid, my stories in this realm offer hope, encouragement, and may resonate with someone struggling with loneliness but finding joy on the other side or just a chuckle along the way. There was a life changing accident, a stroke, now a retired husband, so many transitions make for many stories to tell.
Let me introduce myself.. I am a mom, a stepmom (bonus mom as we call it here) and a grandma. We have a crazy blended family that is often quite dysfunctional, bringing with it new layers of stress, sadness, and joy that I could not have imagined possible. Nor could I have imagined the depth of the pain I carried for nearly two years when I was cut from my young grandson’s life, and I wore the lump in my throat daily like a cross around my neck. I have stories to tell.
Let me introduce myself.. I am a survivor. I have known great sorrow, yet I have also experienced great joy. I have loved deeply, and I have suffered tremendous loss. I still struggle with depression and anxiety but I have learned some things along the way in these 50+ years. My voice is still quiet, covered by those that are louder. But the stories are still there; stories to inspire, encourage, or merely entertain you. These, my dear reader, are my stories.
