The Silent Moments

The Silent Moments

People have opinions about my recovery. Strong ones. They form them from moments, snapshots, not from the hours spent in silence at two in the morning, staring at medical records, trying to understand what my body remembers even when my mind does not. This isn’t recklessness. It’s reckoning. And what you’re seeing is only a fraction of a much deeper transformation.

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The Gift I Didn’t Ask For

The Gift I Didn’t Ask For

Everyone tells me it must be a blessing that I don’t remember the accident. That it’s a gift not to carry those images, those moments, that trauma. But they’re wrong. What they don’t understand is that my brain didn’t just erase the crash, it erased an entire day, the ER, the ICU, the moments that defined the months that followed. And I’m left carrying rage, grief, and pain without context. That kind of absence isn’t mercy. It feels like theft.

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Fifty Days In

Fifty Days In

Fifty days in, and I’m not where I was, but I’m not where I was told I’d be either. I can stand. I can move. I can lift, even if it’s light and ugly and slow. My body is battered, stitched, numb, leaking, and missing pieces, but my mind? My mind is on fire. Somewhere between broken bones and stubborn refusal, I finished the work. And that counts for something. Maybe everything.

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A Good Day

A Good Day

Recovery isn’t linear. Some days you live too far inside your own head, spiraling through thoughts that don’t always land somewhere warm. And then—sometimes—the universe throws you a bone. A good day. A real one. A day where the words flow, where purpose snaps back into focus, where unexpected kindness reminds you that life is still happening. Yesterday was one of those days. And those days matter more than people realize.

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Pins & Progress
Personal Essays & Reflections Kate Sjostrand Personal Essays & Reflections Kate Sjostrand

Pins & Progress

I went to Albuquerque to get the pins removed from my left foot — three pieces of stainless steel holding my toes together. The appointment was a bureaucratic nightmare, the pain was no joke, and the recovery delay hit harder than expected. Healing is progress… but sometimes it feels like punishment.

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Awakening the Words

Awakening the Words

As my body heals, something else is coming back online — my words. Surgery restored movement to my left hand, and suddenly I’m typing again, writing like a woman starved for expression. It feels like healing and creativity are feeding each other in a loop. For the first time since the accident, my mind is awake, my fingers are working, and I finally feel like myself again — at least a little.

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The Quiet After The Storm

The Quiet After The Storm

After a week of relying on others for even the smallest necessities, I finally find myself alone in a quiet house — the first real silence since the accident. I’m grateful, I’m hurting, and I’m oddly hopeful. This silence is a reminder of what freedom used to feel like, and what it might feel like again. But staying away from the anger that keeps clawing at me? That’s the struggle I face every damn day.

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Where To Begin?

Where To Begin?

After losing a week of memory to the accident and waking up in the ICU with pain in every inch of my body, I’ve spent these past days learning how to be myself again — slowly, deliberately, stubbornly. Now I wait for the moment I can go home, rebuild my strength, and eventually throw a leg over Aurora once more. The road back is uncertain, but marching into the unknown is what I do.

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Mickey Mouse and the Message Machine: How Hollywood Is Reshaping America
Rants & Raves, The System is Broken Kate Sjostrand Rants & Raves, The System is Broken Kate Sjostrand

Mickey Mouse and the Message Machine: How Hollywood Is Reshaping America

Hollywood isn’t just telling stories — it’s shaping how we think. From glorifying booze and workplace sex to rewriting gun laws and sanitizing police power, Tinseltown has become a propaganda machine that trades truth for entertainment. And we’ve swallowed it whole. Here’s my unapologetic takedown of ten of Hollywood’s biggest lies — and the dangerous myths we keep believing.

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