An Introduction: Katie Rodante
The journey of a lifelong learner
About
Hi there, I’m Katie and I’m a new writer at ILLUMINATION. It’s a publication I truly love reading and so I’m grateful to now be a part of the community thanks to Dr Mehmet Yildiz!
I’m now tasked with writing an introduction, which sounds easy, right? We all know who we are. . . I think.
I know that I’m a writer, and that I have been for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I wrote my first novel. It was wholly unpublishable and was entirely based on the movie Poltergeist. It’s funny to me to realize that the novel was fan fiction, though at the time I didn’t know fan fiction existed.
In school, my teachers gave my writing such praise: my essays were well formed, and my stories were beautifully written. This inspired me to keep writing. I grew up, went to college for an array of things, always changing my mind, before I landed on paralegal studies. But I kept writing. I worked as a freelance copywriter and always had a novel in progress, even when I was working an entirely unrelated job by day.
These days, I write poetry, articles, zines, novels, short stories, and more. Like much of the Medium community, I’m always writing something.
But writing is work. Who am I outside of my work?
Well, I grew up in Texas. I’m a married mother of two. I love music, and my favorite genres are metal and K-Pop. My house is full of instruments: a ukelele, ocarina, harp, and so many more. I grew up playing video games and never stopped (these days I most often play Sims 4, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or Stardew Valley).
I used to live in Niagara Falls, NY. I always miss the peace of the Falls — the water constantly cascading over the cliffs, the cool breeze you feel if you stand close enough, the frequent rainbows. The Falls is one of my happy places and I miss being able to visit every day.
I love travel, and wish I could do it more. I’ve been on a cruise, and my honeymoon was a two-week journey through Europe where my husband and I frequently got lost and had a blast doing it.
One of my passions is creativity, and another of my passions is mindfulness. I love the study of creativity, inspiration, mindfulness, intentional living, and how it all comes together. I aim to keep my life simple so that my creative pursuits are as easy and streamlined as possible, and enjoy exploring the best ways to do that.
Why Medium
Writing is a solo process, which sometimes means it’s a lonely journey. I originally joined Medium in 2016, wrote one article, and moved on. I came back in May 2020 when I wanted to feel connected to other writers, specifically other poets.
There are so many communities out there for novelists, but I have found less community for those who write poetry.
When I realized Medium is a growing community for writers of all kinds, I returned, and have enjoyed reading such a wide variety of articles, poetry, and finding so many different perspectives all in one place.
Why I write
I write because I have things to share.
I write because writing helps me sort out my thoughts and feelings.
I write to express myself.
I write to connect with other people.
I write to challenge myself.
After years of keeping much of my work private because it wasn’t perfect, I am now writing to share. I am writing to publish. I am not writing to keep the work in my private journal for all eternity because it isn’t perfect. There is no perfect; there is only done. I would rather have finished work than works that are forever in progress.
Daily Haiku Project
Every day I publish a new haiku poem here on Medium. Here are some of my favorites:
A longer poem
So far I’ve written one non-haiku poem on Medium:
Continuing the journey
I’ve really enjoyed my time here on Medium, and I look forward to both reading and writing more poetry and articles, and connecting with other writers.
Thanks for reading!
xx Katie