about

===IN THE THIRD PERSON:===
Meet Kathryn: burlesquer, model, actor, ukulele-er, fantastic cook, and font of wise words and amusing anecdotes. She loves to listen to you and, if she can, help you with your troubles, or, if she can't help, direct you to someone who can. And that's why you're here, no? ~grins~

Kathryn is a person of wide and varied experience. Her only routine is to try something new every day. She has met many people in her travels from many different backgrounds, countries, and expertises. "Knowledge junkie" is something Kat frequently calls herself.

===THINGS I FEEL QUALIFIED TO GIVE ADVICE ABOUT:===
***romantic relationships
***general and nutritional health (I disclaim: I am not a doctor, nor a certified nutritionist yet...I merely have read a lot, experienced a lot in my own life, have personally heard testimonials on a variety of health issues and healthy lifestyle practises, and am a yoga instructor and Ayurvedic health consultant)
***sexual health
***technology (computers specifically, but other techie things like me too ^_^)
***philosophy, theology, and psychology
***social issues
***crafty artsy thingies (excuse the technical jargon)

===POSSIBLE POLITICAL/IDEALOGICAL CONFLICTS WITH YOUR OWN VIEWS:===
*I was raised as a Catholic (the Roman kind), I went to Catholic parochial grade school, I attended a Catholic high school (a Sacred Heart school), and now I attend a Catholic Jesuit university. Although I don't call myself Catholic or Christian, I respect and acknowledge the good things I was raised with.
*I am not prejudiced against any ethnic, socioeconomic, or cultural background.
*I am not prejudiced against any religion or spiritual path, including a lack of one (atheism, don't-give-a-damn-ism).
*I am not prejudiced against any sexual orientation or gender identity. I myself am romantically and sexually queer, physically female, mentally gender-f***ed. If you ever want to talk about sexual orientation and/or gender identity, don't hesitate to contact me! I am working toward a sexology degree, and these things interest me immensely!
*I don't care for politics very much, but I respect the people who are wise with their words and respectful to others.

===SOME QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE FOR ME (BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY ASK YOUR QUESTION):===
"You're only 24! You don't know anything about the world. How could you possibly give me advice on anything?" Perhaps I am fairly young to be giving advice to people. But I do know this: everyone who has ever come to me looking for counsel has always told me, either during or right after our "sessions", that I am not overly critical, that I am honest and fair, that I am sensitive and understanding, that I am open-minded and tolerant, that they can count on me to give a good outside objective perspective, and (something I think is most important in being an advisor) that I am a good listener.

"What types of things do you give advice on?" Well, I can give you advice on almost anything, really. If I personal experience with what you're asking about, I'll patch it through. If I don't, I'll put in my two cents and let you know where you can get more firsthand knowledge.

"Why do you write sooooo muuuuuch?"
I'm a writer, I blabber sometimes, heh. I do take a lot of care in my writing though, I want to give you a well-thought-out answer. But the other reason I write so much is because I don't want to give you a one-sentence reply, unless it's to a very black-and0white question like "What time does 'House' air on Tuesday in Cincinnati?"

===IN CLOSING:===
You got questions? Lemme at 'em!

I wish you all lives filled with tasty food, goofball antics, and people you love to share them with you.

~*Kathryn*~

advice

hey, i used to be the former leader of my clique at school. then for some reason the people that i used to lead became retarded and started acting dumb. so i have a new group of people now, but everyone is pretty much individuals. like i wouldnt be able to boss them around. basically they wouldnt let me lead them. what should i do.

it sounds like most of the other answers have addressed the "you shouldn't boss your friends around" thing, so i'll try to advise about something else. ^_^

you say your new group of friends is a group of individuals. what do you mean when you say that? do you mean individual in the sense that they're cynical goth/emo non-conformists, or cool laid-back beatnik theatre people, or rebellious libertarian punk-rockers, or free-spirited new-agey hippie-folk, etc.?? i don't really have a specific point here, i just want you to think about the kind of people you're hanging out with and where you fall within the categories of individualism.

also, why do you want to boss people around? do you have some overwhelming need to be the one power, or do you feel like you need to be in charge and in control to feel like you have power over your life, or do you feel like nothing will get done if you don't take charge? again, i'm not saying you fall under any of those, i'm just giving you something to think about.

another tidbit of wisdom from someone who is (i'm guessing) older and more experienced: cliques don't last; they seperate and segregate people; they create artificial hierarchies that give the nobles an empty sense of belonging and the monarchs the illusions of grandeur, power, and often, self-worth that they don't think they can find anywhere else.

here are two websites you might want to check out. now, i don't think of enneagrams and other personality tools as the end-all-be-all, but at the very least, they're interesting and tell you a lot about yourself. not just what you like to do and how you learn things, but with enneagrams especially you learn more about what you want and what you fear, how you interact with others, and how you think about things. so go on, take the enneagram test at http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/, and try out some of the tests on http://similarminds.com/

remember to answer honestly and you might be surprised at what you'll find. if i had to guess, i would probably say you were an 8, or possibly a 4 with a 3-wing, or a 3 with a 4-wing, but most likely an 8 i think.

and on a side note, it's not exactly leaderly, or even particularly nice, of you to be calling your former group of "followers" retarded and dumb. maybe that's why they didn't want to "follow" you anymore, because you belittled and insulted them. a hard truth to hear? yeah. it is. but it's still a truth, and you need to hear it, and you need to come to grips with it, accept it, learn from it, and change.

take my advice and go take that enneagram. go have your "individualist group" take it. see what you all get. if they're a bunch of 3/4s and 4/3s i wouldn't be surprised. and again, there's nothing wrong with being any of those things, and the 4 in me says you can't be defined by a number. ^_^ it's only bad when you're an unhealthy 4, or whatever number you are. the enneagram is only a tool; you're the one who has to make the changes.

hope this helped. good luck!

~*kitty*~

[view]

(Rating: 5) thank you so much, i think im gonna take that thing = ] im adding you as a favorite columist!
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