Katelynn Roeper

Writing is a Destination

Each time we face a new beginning, we tap into an infinite pool of insights—lessons that have soaked into our skin, our muscles, our bones. All we have been. All we have done. Experiences that influence how we speak to the world and how we listen to one another. Beginnings are less about starting over and more about welcoming a new challenge—building upon our past.

Last year, on my birthday, staring into the flames of enough candles to set my house on fire, I asked myself, what will I do differently as I begin this new year? The answer came to me in one simple word. Write.

To clarify, it’s not the act of writing that’s new. Every pencil I’ve ever held, has been worn down to its nub. And in fact, writing has been the single most important thread, common to every position I’ve ever held.

So what's changed? I used to view writing as the means to an end. And now? Now, my writing is my destination.

As my words spill onto the page, they’re saturated by the events that have shaped me, great and small—skinned knees, a grieving heart, a hopeful soul. Finish lines I’ve crossed, mountains I’ve climbed and brick walls I’ve tried to barrel through. Times I’ve hung on too long and others I’ve let go of too soon.

This is not a new beginning. Nor a sweeping end. Rather it’s all the breathless moments bridging one to the other. This is life as I know it.

The Beauty of Aging

When we were kids, my dad would say that one of us was from the mailman, one from the milkman, and one from the bread man. (Yes, I’m old enough to remember having our milk and bread delivered to the door.) While we may have been too young to grasp the biological implications of such a scenario, we somehow recognized this was my father’s way of pointing out the vast differences between his daughters.

3 min read

A Little Change in Perspective

Sitting alone on a mountaintop, I considered my view. That which stood in my depth of field, drew a hard line along its edges, claiming individuality. Crisp. Sharp. Unapologetic for its existence.

2 min read

There are

few things

in life

more exciting

than choosing what book

to read next.

Katelynn sitting in bay window, reading a book

Words have power.
It's our responsibility to
choose them wisely.

"

Inside Katelynn's Life

Katelynn Roeper savors quiet time, often propped up in her bay window with whatever book is hot off the press. Throughout her career in marketing, non-profit management and public service, Katelynn believed words can make our world spin, silence an entire community, or usher a poverty-ridden child into greatness. Words have power. It’s our responsibility to choose them wisely."

Writing has been instrumental in each step of her career, from a degree in journalism at Syracuse University to running her own marketing agency. Approaching every writing project as if it were a work of art, her canvas ever-changing, from billboards to websites, grant proposals to legislative policy.

Recently retired, Katelynn now gets to choose. What she writes. Why she writes. Who she writes for. It’s a gift she dreamed of all her life but never imagined receiving until she held it in her hands. After years of carrying around unwritten books in her head, Katelynn has refocused her writing to shine a light on the untold stories.

Katelynn begins most days in her favorite chair, with a laptop balanced on her knees and a freshly brewed cup of decaf in hand—her golden retriever never far from her side. As a wife, mother, and “Bubbe” to her beautiful grandchildren, family relics can often be found hiding between the pages of her narratives.