Kathleen, who goes by Kat, and I met for this interview at the Hudson Library on Friday, June 7th, 2013. Kat is in her early twenties and currently resides in Catskill, NY, with her fiancé and nearly one-year-old son. Kat begins her story by talking about her family. She was born in Chicago, the third oldest of seven children. Her parents are both Irish – her father is an artist and her mother was a bartender until she recently started working at Catskill Mental Health. Kat describes her Childhood home family life as lively and close; loud political discourse at the table over coffee was standard. Kat was homeschooled for most of her education until she went to the Hudson High School in 2004.
Kat’s parents moved to Germantown when she was sixteen due to challenges in their relationship, upon which Kat decided to move out into a friend’s grandmother’s attic. She supported herself by working in the service industry and took overall charge of her life: her grades improved and she took part in various extracurricular activities.
After high school Kat applied to several colleges and got accepted to Bard College with a full scholarship, where she studied Philosophy and Political Science. She goes into depth about a Spoken Word group she organized at the college and shares one of her poems with me from memory.
Her time at Bard changed drastically after Kat decided to take custody of her sister and live with her in Hudson. The increased demands of commuting and family reflected on her academic record negatively until eventually she moved out to stay with her mother, who was very supportive. Kat met her current fiancé and quickly their relationship became serious. Upon finding out about her pregnancy, Kat made arrangements to leave Bard shortly before her graduation. She contrasts her presence at Bard during this time to the first years before leaving to Hudson in which she was integrated and more or less carefree. She also discusses the changes Hudson has undergone in the past decade.
Kat goes into detail about a trip to Broadmoor, New Orleans she took in 2009 to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. She reflects on the struggle overcome the hurdle of integrating herself and truly helping despite her Exchangeable status as a white Northeastern volunteer. Her experience teaching there, tutoring off and on, and the natural teaching experience she gained by co-raising her siblings has affirmed her plan to become a high school history teacher, hopefully at the Hudson High School.
