All tagged kristy kelly
As 2024 winds down, I find myself reflecting on the people who make our Magic Mile Media and Neuse News family so special. This year has been filled with challenges, triumphs, and countless moments of growth, both as individuals and as a team. Today, I want to share some of our collective gratitude—a peek into the hearts of the people I am lucky to work alongside every day.
Kinston has a way of providing me what I need. My love for this town is a little strange, even to me, but I’ve never lived anywhere that has done so much for me and my family. This year has been surreal in ways I never expected. Usually, when the holidays roll around, the stress of everything I can’t do steals the joy of the season.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not the downfall of modern civilization, nor is it the savior. It has been an integral part of modern technology since the dawn of smart phones with predictive text, and has seen an explosion in popularity with entities like Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
I have a fascination with how other people decorate their spaces for the holidays. Recently a friend of mine sent me a photo of her table top which held adorable fall decorations and I got to thinking about whether or not I wanted to decorate my own house. It’s not really a thought I’ve wrestled with in the past because I’ve never lived anywhere long enough to accumulate decorations.
Last night I attempted to put a three-year-old to bed. I’m particularly fond of this little angelic cherub, as she’s my tiny tot sidekick who regularly gets me into trouble with her mother. Having a toddler best friend is a unique experience every grandparent should have. If nothing else, the hilarity will keep any grandparent feeling young and alive.
Life in my forties is a weird time. I’m too young to be old, but way too old to be young. It was quite the conundrum until I spoke to my twenty-three-year-old son. All it took was a single conversation with him to realize that I could no longer claim a youthful existence. I
There is nothing worse, as a mother, than when your grown child presents you with a problem that your experience could easily resolve, only to refuse any semblance of advice or parental wisdom. The amount of time you get to prepare your children for life is far briefer than you ever expect.
The saga of Duplin, also known as the dog with a jug on his head, appears to be coming to an end if a post on social media is to be believed. The post announced the dog’s imminent euthanasia and was then shared with various news outlets, including ours. The outrage is building online as I type this. Unfortunately, the outrage is misplaced.
One of the women I admire, at an event we were both attending, took a few moments to tell me how much she enjoyed reading these columns. My writer’s heart explodes with joy every time I hear, or read, those words. Then she proceeded to say I am much too hard on myself.
As with most things in my life, I’m a walking contradiction. It freaks me out to be the center of attention, yet here I am, publishing another personal column—on my birthday, no less. Standing in a room full of people makes me feel claustrophobic, but I’m usually in attendance for most big events in our community. All it took was a rise in temperature for all my contradictions to align.
Writing, for me, had become as routine as breathing—so natural that I barely noticed its presence. But somewhere along the way, I'd forgotten the unique cadence of my writing voice, lost in the humdrum of daily life.
Under normal circumstances, it’s often hard to understand our parents and why they made the decisions that ultimately sculpted us to become the people we are today. I think I am who I am today in spite of mine.
My son is going to get his associates degree from LCC this year. I’m so proud of his accomplishments and how hard he’s worked at finishing the course work. It wasn’t easy, for either of us. As he’s my youngest, his impending graduation has left me feeling out of sorts. Incomplete.
This is my last column for Mental Health Awareness Month. I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for joining me on this journey of self-awareness. It took me a long time to understand that the world I read about growing up and the reality I lived in are not the same.
As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month, I embarked on a series of personal columns detailing my journey toward improved mental well-being. Having spent a lifetime in survival mode, envisioning the future's potential remains a challenge for me.
