#1: the start of it all

this is a long one, they won't all be this way, I swear

hi hi hi sisters ♡

now you might be saying to yourself, “but I’m not your sister?” and while that might be true, seeing as I only have one blood related sister, I’m rebranding that word to include the broader definition of sister, such as: a thing regarded as feminine and associated as if by kinship with something else; being or considered a sister- related by or as if by sisterhood; having a close relationship with another because of shared interests, problems, or the like; and lastly, a woman who supports, promotes, or participates in feminism.

I want to create this newsletter as a space for me to share my weekly RECAP. I want to cultivate a community of sisters and a space for all of us to share our RECAPs and lessons we learn from the week.

my freshman year of college I had a blog, I truly can’t even find it anymore because I don’t remember the name of it, but I loved having a little place I could write about my life and random topics that would pop into my head. I felt like Hillary Duff in “The Perfect Man” just tip-tap-typing away my thoughts thinking I was the main character of my life (which like we are all the main characters of our own lives). on my mission I LoVeD my little weekly email. I loved being able to express myself through written word to a broader group than just my personal journal. during my time in undergrad and when I first moved to New York, I had a podcast where I could interview people and just chat chat chat away. but that became too hard to manage between scheduling interviews and editing the interviews myself all while trying to study for the LSAT on top of a 50-hour work week…

so now, here we are. trying to somehow put together all of my interests into one place and seeing where it takes me and you and hopefully can benefit you. I’m taking this seriously; I even spoke to a mentor to get this passion project up and running in a way that is more sustaining than every other project I have done thus far.

sometimes I’m quite intimidated with writing and sharing my thoughts to the world. I’m not scared about sharing my thoughts and stuff to my friends, I do that in person anyways. I’m not even scared about sharing thoughts and ramblings to strangers, because you don’t know me. It’s the people in between; the *acquaintances* that scare me. you know who I’m talking about, the co-workers and the classmates, the cousins and distant family members you don’t talk too often, and the church members you grew up with. the people that don’t really know much about your life but for some reason their judgements are the ones that are the most intimidating…

BUT I’m trying to embrace the uncomfortable and the scary, so welcome to the RECAP

the way I want to just recommend to my past self to go to hair school because I would have a trade that I could make a career out of and not have to stress about figuring out what I want to do for the rest of my life while in law school… as you can tell i’m currently going through a quarter life crisis and feeling very existential…..

but to combat these existential feelings, I recommend getting ice cream with friends at like 8:30 pm and making fools of yourself in the parking lot and laughing so hard your abs hurt

movies: this is from a couple of weeks ago, but I FINALLY watched Pride and Prejudice, I had never seen it before and I truly have no clue why. it was 100% up my alley and I loved every second of it (you can read my full review here)

podcasts: loved this episode with Tara Westover, she’s the author of Educated, a fabulous memoir I loved. I also really enjoyed the interviewer, Adam Grant, I found his interview style to be very engaging and I am excited to listen to more episodes of his

music: GUTS is still on repeat. I LOVE logical, love is embarrassing, all american bitch (I think this one is so funny and clever), and ballad of a homeschool girl. but truly the whole album is wonderful. i'm crossing every body part of mine hoping I get to see her live (shoutout to bjørn for signing up for the presale as well hehe)

on the topic of this album though, who is thinking that The Grudge is about Taylor Swift? I’m not sure, but I do believe something happened just based on lack of engagement between Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Conan Gray, and it makes me sad tbh

*actually adding on to this a couple of days later, as i’m listening to the Pop Apologists they talked about this “feud” (starting at 14 minutes) and gave more specifics that were referenced in the lyrics between Taylor and Olivia and I believe The Grudge theory now

in my mind: this really tender article about a man’s experience listening to Taylor Swift while in prison

also this article from Emily Ratajkowski discussing her experience with how she can’t even own her own body because of photographs that are taken of her. which I have been thinking about a lot lately with celebrities. its crazy to me that people can make merch of Taylor Swift and use her image, use her, to make money for themselves without the permission of Taylor herself. idk its just very interesting to think about.

in my stomach: thicccc Utah shakes and Hruska’s Kolaches, i’m so happy I could cry

(we went to Nielsen’s but they were out of oreos, I decided I didn’t want anything else so I didn’t get anything but instead went to iceberg an hour and a half later and ordered a MINI cake batter and oreo shake and got this MAMMOTH)

these days i’ve been feeling pretty lost and just like “what am i doing with my life” and i feel like i have so many things running through my mind at any given second of the day. but i started going through the “12 aspects of life” with a friend weekly to try to figure out what parts of my life are lacking. it doesn’t feel super overwhelming, and it’s been very helpful to review my life broken up within different subsections instead of as a whole. I learned about this method of “evaluating your life” from when I had a health coach for a year. it was a great option for me at the time as she was more like a life coach but focused on physical health more than a life coach would, but it was nice to have a person to be accountable to, that also worked like a life coach/therapist, and was more affordable. also my health coach was chelsey curtis, and I love her so much, so i just felt very lucky. 

for those curious, the twelve aspects (at least the categories that Chelsey gave me) are: Spirituality, Creativity, Finances, Career, Health, Education, Physical Activity, Home Cooking, Home Improvement, Relationships, Social Life, and Joy

tiktok: I truly cannot stop thinking about the videos of the double rainbow that happened in New York on 9/11, they all bring me to tears

pinterest: this dog, he’s perfect, I love him.

also did you know that Dolly Parton is now on pinterest? I think its fun to follow celebrities and influencers because I love seeing people’s mood boards and what inspires them

instagram: Olivia Rodrigo’s VMA Dress, Renee Rapp’s Sweetgreen Campaign, and this tender quote

oliviarodrigo

A post shared by @oliviarodrigo

sweetgreen

A post shared by @sweetgreen

thiswallwasboringme

A post shared by @thiswallwasboringme

if you’ve made it this far, I’m glad to have you along for this ride. each week won’t be this long, I pinky promise, but I wanted to give a proper introduction and go in depth with what you can expect.

I can’t promise to be the most beautifully articulate person in the world, I don’t use capitalized letters a lot of times; nor will I promise this to be a PG place, I might drop a cuss word here and there. but I can promise you to be real and to share my life and experiences, and just make this a grand ol’ time for us all.

once again, welcome sister. I’m so happy to have you.

xoxo,

your big sis, kaitlynn