A (Very) Informal Resumé
Well, I’m Kelsey… a newly 30-year-old woman living in Louisville, Kentucky with my husband, Micah + our two malamute pups, Carol & Coda.
We’ve been together for two years in April 2020, but have known each other for fifteen… that’s a long story that I’ll get to in the next several posts. He's my number one fan, and I credit him with bringing this dream of mine into a reality. Oh, and he’s a phenomenal photographer, so be sure to check out his work at micahdeyoung.com.
But, back to me— well, I work at a local non-profit doing fundraising. I give a lot of presentations, and help our grants team write proposals and reports. I also work with our marketing department on things like copywriting and our volunteer engagement team with creating large-scale opportunities to serve. It’s not the most glamorous job, but I find it quite rewarding knowing my time is helping people get the resources they need.
I’ve held an assortment of jobs since graduating from college in 2012 at a (relatively) small school called Samford in Birmingham, Alabama before moving home to Louisville. I started as a retail associate at a card shop, then a social work graduate intern where I worked with refugees, followed by a brand manager at a women’s clothing store, took a detour back to human services where I was caretaker of adults with disabilities, then a sales & marketing manager for a social enterprise bakery, and now a “resource development manager.” I’m tired just typing that- whew! Because of my diverse work experiences, I like to think of myself as a passionate humanitarian that has a lot of skills & interests.
For as long as I can remember though, I’ve been especially interested in the artistic process and in helping people. My high school actually had majors— mine was visual art. My young heart wanted to go to art school (at SCAD) so badly, but I was afraid of missing out on the academic and more collegiate experience. So off I went to study Journalism, then I detoured again and finished with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing with a poetry thesis. I almost pursued publishing professionally, but couldn’t shake my desire to simply help people, so I spent a full year pursuing a graduate degree in Social Work… until I realized that particular program wasn’t for me. Being a high achiever, this was both a very stubborn and very painful realization, but it just wasn’t the right fit. I do hope to finish a similar program one day, but at that time and in that place, I needed to focus on my mental health.
My twenties were hard— mentally, emotionally, and spiritually… especially on my mental health. As a result, I’ve been privileged to have spent years in counseling and built a firm foundation around self-care and self-awareness. That alone has hugely informed my current sense of identity, and freed me from believing I am simply the sum of what I do. Because I know I was never alone in this belief, I want to share my journey with you because it matters. How you spend you physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self, how you empty and fill your cups, matters greatly— to you and those around you.
So, now eight years post undergrad, I’ve realized I am not simply a sum of what I do, or who I’m in a relationship with, or where I’ve been... none of that. All of my experiences have collectively shaped me, on a soul-stirring level, and have led me to new dreams of one day becoming a published author & eventually opening a counseling practice. God only knows if/when those dreams will realize, but, until then, I plan to explore a lot here through this medium. I hope you stick around and gain some perspective here, that you what you read here not only informs you of who I am, but it makes you more aware of who you are and who you want to be.