Hi there, and welcome!

Since you’re here, you’ll probably have gathered my name is Kerri–I live on the Canadian Prairies.

Kerri - me! - at my typical work area: the kitchen table with a MacBook.I’ve been blogging forever (pieces of my ten-year-old writing self are on the internet somewhere, I’d presume). I finally started blogging more seriously at the end of high school. Eventually (aka August 2011), I moved over here to Kerri on the Prairies. Now, I’m in my twenties, and trying to figure out how to be a grown-up after graduating from university in June 2014 with a Bachelor of Physical and Health Education. While (fortunately) I don’t teach gym class, I learned a lot of things I never thought I would care about. I’m pretty passionate about empowering people towards self-change, and otherwise, I presently use a lot of what I did in school coaching–I coach a team of young Special Olympics athletes, and in October 2014, I found myself coaching Goalball–a sport designed for visually impaired athletes. Every Sunday is an adventure with the dudes I coach (and I’m happy they’re patient with me!).

I’m currently working my first “real” post-university job, as a research assistant with the University of Alberta (yes, I live two provinces over). I’m also doing communications work with two other companies–transparency is important to me, and you can find my disclosure statement here. Also found in my disclosure statement are other professional relationships, including my volunteer roles (and past contract employment) with the Asthma Society of Canada/National Asthma Patient Alliance, where I serve as an executive committee member, sub-committee co-chair, Team Asthma advisor, and Asthma Ambassador.

A lot of my life is explained–but not defined–by my health, and the variable landscape that is life with chronic disease. Between my roles with the Asthma Society and the Canadian Severe Asthma Network, it’s probably evident I have asthma. I’m the creator of the term “badassmatic“–which is a person with asthma who is “better defined by badassery than asthma”. Learn more about my asthma and other medical [mis]adventures here.

Me, wearing a shirt reading "this is what a learning disability looks like"In 2013 I was diagnosed with ADHD and a perceptual/non-verbal learning disability–learn more about what that means here.  Discovering this at 21 didn’t as much help explain me to others as it did help me understand myself. This has obviously had a profound [positive!] impact on my self-perception, and I chose to not see this diagnosis as a label . . . but as a bridge.

I’ve enjoyed a lot of crazy opportunities stemming from the chaos of chronic disease–and, more importantly, I’ve gained a lot of friends for life in the process, too. As a Stanford Medicine X ePatient Scholar, I’ve had the opportunity to attend MedX twice: both times, it opened my eyes, and brain, for months years to come, assisting me to further redefine my perceptions of life with chronic disease, and what impact a single voice can have–without one voice, we never become unified. Medicine X brings patients–and healthcare providers–together to facilitate learning, encourage implementation and growth of technology in medicine, and change how people think about thinking about medicine.

In other pursuits related more to silliness, I occasionally co-write a blog about grilled cheese sandwiches created by my friend Scott Johnson–Scott is just one of the many awesome people I’ve connected with online and met in person. Some of my best friends “live inside my computer”, but occasionally we get lucky enough to cross paths in person–combining two of my biggest loves: travel and turning online friends into “just” friends!  I also enjoy vlogging, playing guitar, writing, and getting the most adventure possible out of life. I have another side project called “quantify this“, a blog about my own quantified self/self-tracking journey, but at present (January 2015), I’m not sure if I’ll continue it there or here instead.

I love adventure, exploring, positivity, writing, airplanes and airports, road trips, cupcakes, notebooks, technology, and about a zillion other things.

Perspective is crucial, positivity is essential, and ignorance is curable. Life may not look anything like I thought it would–but I’m hopefully a better person for it.  It’s crazy and I wouldn’t have it any other way–it’s good to be alive . . . and even better to appreciate the Good Things . . .

3 thoughts on “about*

  1. Hi Kerri!

    I’m putting out a campaign on Lung Health on November 19th in the Toronto Star and would love to be able to talk to you about asthma and your experiences with it, as well as your advocacy.

    Feel free to contact me on my email!

    Thank you so much,
    Taylor

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