I grew up in rural (and beautiful) Hopewell Cape, on the Fundy Coast of New Brunswick, Canada.

My first adult job was as a Park Ranger at The Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park - a 15 minute bike ride from my childhood home.

At the end of the tourist season, one year, I took a train to Halifax to visit friends. I missed my train home...and sort of decided to stay. It's still my favourite city in the world.

I came home, planning to return and attend Law School (set to save the world through argument and a strong background in western philosophy). I had kids and started my crazy-cool fam-jam instead.

Road less travelled and all that. It made all the difference.

Before my youngest turned one, my older daughter was diagnosed with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (bit of a story there), profound neurological hearing loss and a severe communication disorder.

I started to learn the dancing language of ASL. Beautiful. 

And I started University...and got divorced. It was a busy time...and the best time of my life.

I made friends I'll never forget, learned deeply about some of the most amazing topics (teaching, reading, writing, words, drawing, psychology, cultural anthropology, history, colonialism, retribution, revolution, and all of the bits of humanity in between).

I cannot over-speak the importance of higher education. I don't care that I'll never be out of debt (although that being a necessity to learn is deeply problematic), because I was fundamentally changed, as a human being.

When given the choice between learning and not learning - we should never ever choose to close our minds.

I graduated with 2 University Degrees (and a generous handful of minors, because learning is my absolute FAVOURITE) and began teaching High School English.

I was working as a teacher, curriculum advisor, bookkeeper, market researcher, communications and a half dozen other hats at a local school for students with learning disabilities.

I was also - just for fun - working in a retail shop and raising my two girls alone.

After 4 or 5 years working at that rate, after a marathon of working while at University and single-momming my girls...it hit.

BURNOUT!

And the fallout from working myself stupid and running my engine WAY too hot for WAY too long. I got really sick.

And I left teaching - the job I thought I was made for. It was a heartbreak, and I had no idea how to go forward without it.

I heard from a dear friend of mine, about a learning community, online. It offered free live classes for creative people, and she knew that the only salve I could use was learning.

So I dived into learning ALL the things there were to learn about "Creative Entrepreneurship". I mean...I learned that Creative Entrepreneurs exist - and they need writers to help them communicate their value with their clients.

I started the framework of With a K that year, and it was amazing! But after some time, I got caught up in supporting other people's creativity without supporting my own. 

The fit still wasn't quite right.

Cleaning out one of my many boxes of books one day, I pulled out some of the fine art and drawing texts I had used in one of my many minors in Uni (Remember the learn-a-thon of my undergrad? I still miss being in a building filled with experts who are simply waiting for you to walk into their classrooms and learn).

I cracked open a sketchbook and let out an exhale of creative play I'd been holding in for YEARS.

After, "Witha K" had been running successfully for some time, I ran into the parents of one of my former students.

They said to me, "Kris, she needs your help," and I was SO there for that. She had been one of my favourite students and I was excited to see how she was doing in High School.

We met up at a coffee shop and talked about everything - boys, ringette, high school, oat cakes...and Romeo and Juliet. Because that was the subject of the paper she needed help with.

When I left that café, I realized that this was the thing I was missing. I had to put all of my things together and let myself be a teacher and a creator.

I just needed to be doing it in a way that supported the Voices of other women who needed to share their Stories with the world.