Katherine J. Zumpano
pisces | poet | wwu student
poetry & fiction & everything in between
IG: @katzumpano
Dear Donald – Goodbye
Dear Donald, So this is it. In just a day, the United States of America will have a new president. A couple of years into your term, I wrote you another open letter. In it, I talked about the hate I have felt towards you and the members of your administration. I’m almost twenty-five years old, and I have known more hate than I would like. There are mornings I wake up and I can already feel it pulsing in my heart: rage, frustration, hopelessness. There are days I have to defend myself against personal attacks by ignorant people, questioning the kind of daughter/partner/person I am. There are nights I cry myself to sleep because I am exhausted and scared. Sometimes I struggle to find a balance between exerting necessary energy and wasting valuable energy. It’s been tricky to navigate my emotions during the last four years.
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished about 5 hours ago in The Swamp
The Beginner's Guide to Free Speech
If you’ve been following the news lately, you probably already know that Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter. On January 8, 2021, the social media company posted the following statement to their blog:
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished 9 days ago in The Swamp
Quarantine Snapshots: My Year in Photos
I think it’s pretty obvious that this year was nothing like I’d anticipated. I had all these plans — people I was going to see, places I was going to go — that never came to fruition. I was unable to see my family or friends for much of the year, instead relying on iMessage and FaceTime to keep us connected. I started my final year of college online, desperately wishing I could wait in a long line for campus coffee or get lost in Miller Hall one more time. I spent August in bed, recovering from a surgery I never thought I’d need.
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished 19 days ago in Humans
By Women, For Women: A Gift Guide for the Girls
We live in a world of instant gratification: we want our purchases to be delivered as quickly as possible, we want the ability to search for literally anything on a single site, we want to be presented with the highest number of options so we can find the best one. Consumerism is all about convenience, and big companies like Amazon Prime have made that convenience the norm, leaving small businesses struggling.
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished 19 days ago in Viva
9 Albums That Got Me Through 2020
I listened to a lot of music in 2020. Well, according to Spotify, I listened for 37,653 minutes, which seems like a lot. Much of my free time for the last nine months has been spent listening to music — playing an album while washing dishes or folding laundry has helped to break up the monotony of spending every day inside my apartment.
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished 21 days ago in Beat
17 At-Home Activities for a Quarantine Christmas
If you usually celebrate the holidays with friends and family, it might feel strange to spend the holidays at home this year. It's better to keep yourself and others safe, but you might feel sad without the normal busy activity of the holiday season this year.
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished about a month ago in Lifehack
4 Cookie Recipes I Love to Make for the Holidays
The holidays aren’t complete without delicious, fresh-from-the-oven baked goods. Soft, chewy, sweet...everyone loves a good cookie.
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished about a month ago in Feast
4 Simple DIY Crafts to Make At Home
I love making things. Whether it’s poems, cards, or crafts, I’m happiest when I’m creating something. A few years ago, I moved out of my parents’ house to finish college in another city. I was working ten hours a week at an on-campus job, so I didn’t have much disposable income for Christmas gifts. I started looking around online for inexpensive gift ideas and saw a lot of DIY projects – candles, bath salts, lip balms. I made sugar scrubs and bath salts that year, and was surprised by how much my friends and family liked them. It’s now a yearly tradition to whip up a batch of holiday candles, and I most of the gifts I give for birthdays and other occasions are homemade now, too.
Katherine J. ZumpanoPublished 2 months ago in Lifehack
