Kathleen showcased a sense of urgency about life from the womb. She was supposed to be born in late May but arrived in late March. Which makes her a natural born leader. Her childhood years were quarrelsome. Either the other kids could roll with her or they couldn’t. She never needed attention but she always stood out due to her own creativity and ambition. Despite her creativity, her parents pushed her into sports, not the arts.
The little girl was in two two sports: ice skating because of her mother and boxing because of her father. Many women talk about sexism and how as a little girl they felt stifled into a box of what personality they should or shouldn’t have. Kathleen definitely had that experience within the context of the ice skating sport. Her being a little black girl with afro textured hair and brown skin didn’t help either. Since the stereotypical ice skater was supposed to be the typical blonde, thin, white, blue eyed all american suburban girl with the girl next door personality to match. And let’s not get started on the bland costumes which were only saved by the glitter. Mrs. Bergeron-Irvine at least stood firm on the idea of Kathleen wearing homemade costumes. There were all girls and no boys in the ice skating classes. All the girls hated her and so did the teachers. Kathleen didn’t conform to the cosplaying rich ice princess ideal because Mrs. Bergeron-Irvine didn’t hide her working class roots herself.
Kathleen’s natural personality was and still is considered better for boxing. She was one of three girls in the boxing class. The other two little girls were sisters. If Kathleen pissed off one of them then she pissed off both of them. She always fought back hard against the both of them, earning their begrudging respect. The boys in the boxing class also grew to begrudgingly respect her. Regardless of the differing reactions between genders in sports, her interactions with girls were more balanced outside of ice skating classes.
Her parents didn’t suppress Kathleen’s artistic tendencies. They encouraged her merely assuming that it would be used for her hobbies. In her teenage years she finally had enough. She wreaked havoc due to her parents not letting her quit sports. They let her quit eventually. She told them about her dream jobs. She wanted to be the owner of a printing press and a publisher so that she can put her creativity into her own wedding magazine. She also wanted to own a bar where she could host some fabulous wedding receptions. However her teenage years quickly went off the rails.
What made her teenage years the worst is the damage that she did to others. By the time she realized her mistake it was too late. The queen bee of the high school Kathleen attended was scared of Kathleen. But Kathleen didn’t know that. The queen bee wasn’t rich, she was middle class. So the queen bee pretended to be Kathleen’s friend and her greatest ally. The queen bee wasn’t rich, she was middle class. There were no luxurious lifestyle to tempt Kathleen with. The only temptation was friendship. But of course the fake friendship ended in disaster. One of the jocks began crushing on Kathleen. The queen bee surprisingly wasn’t a cheerleader. As a matter of fact the queen bee had stole the jock from the captain of the cheerleading squad. The captain of the cheerleading squad tried to warn Kathleen of what the queen bee would do. Kathleen wouldn’t listen because she hated cheerleaders. Unfortunately she paid the price for that. Under the guise of a fake friendship and alliance Kathleen became the queen bee’s bodyguard slash muscle. Yes she bullied other girls. There’s no other way to describe it. The queen bee blackmailed her out of jealousy. She became depressed, began cutting herself, and almost jumped off of the school’s roof. These behaviors lead to a situation where she was sent to a psychiatric hospital which is basically purgatory on earth. It’s all cliché and that’s why even as an adult she’s ashamed of it. She’s ashamed of the fact that she fell for the illusion constructed by the wrong person. She’s ashamed of the fact that she allowed someone else to convince her that she’s worthless.
Somehow she graduated high school with a three point seven gpa. Going into college she originally hated other girls and thought they were all manipulators and sociopaths. But then she was reminded that it was the captain of the cheerleading squad, a girl, who tried to warn her. And Kathleen had to simply admit that she was wrong. This admission to herself lead to her biggest psychological breakthrough that helped her put her high school years behind her.
Putting the high school years behind her also meant properly planning her future. Was she going to stay in Maine or leave the state? Was she going to be a part time student and a part time member of the work force? Was she going to be a full time student simply squeaking by on her parent’s hard earned money? Was she going to work full time for a year to save up her own money and then go to college? Would she attend a normal college, a community college, or a historically black college?
She refused to be the stereotypical small town girl with big dreams who goes to New York City or Los Angeles only to end up downtrodden and broken. She spent most of her teenage years downtrodden and broken, enough is enough. So she went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and it’s no less of a ruthless city to live in. But it was devoid of the superficial Hollywood mindset or the superficial Wall Street mindset. Big city life didn’t appeal to Kathleen at all. Regardless she knew she had to do it for the sake of socioeconomic optics. In America everyone is more likely to take someone seriously if they go to a college in the big city. So Kathleen went to college in Philly and got her bachelorette’s degree in journalism. She also steered clear of sororities and fraternities because they reminded her too much of the pieces of shit that she had to deal with in high school. Back in high school despite her poor mental state she kept up with her Spanish. She decided to work part time through her college years so she wouldn’t have the time to get a bachelor’s in journalism and a associates in Spanish. So she had to improvise learning Spanish without academic support. College was over for her quicker than most because she took classes during the summer.
After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, she kept her same part time job. Then she added a second job. She earned her way up the writer’s ranks by doing a lot of freelance writing for multiple magazines and newspapers. Even when she didn’t have interest in whatever she was researching and interviewing people for she could put together a fantastic article.
Now here she is going into her thirties brandishing a successful wedding magazine (Maine Port of Lovers) that’s printed and released digitally behind a paywall. The magazine is bilingual and bimonthly. She also owns the printing press (Berg-Irv Printing Press) and publisher (Berg-Irv Publishing House) responsible for the magazine. The printing press and publisher has now expanded into making and distributing books written by other people.
She’s got the career she wanted. She’s back home in the small town that she’s used to. Now she’s carefully scouting for a man she wants. Kathleen had two serious relationships in her twenties. She never dated before that and she hasn’t dated since. She remains a virgin all these years because she’s celebate. Even though her boyfriends never said it out loud, she believes that it’s possible that being celebate caused the breakups. She even considered that they might have cheated on her and she simply didn’t found out. Kathleen is impatient when it comes to most of her life, except for marriage and love. It’s the two things in her life that she has had to think very carefully about. Mr. Irvine had no problem telling Kathleen why he loved his wife. There were no flowery words needed. He kept it simple by focusing on the foundation of the relationship and not the fluffy stuff. Mrs. Bergeron-Irvine spoke about dating her husband like it was espionage. She distrusted him and told her husband to keep their dating a secret for two whole years. These two things combined have made Kathleen’s approach to dating interesting. Being in love with Kathleen takes time.
