Once upon a time, in the enchanted land of New York, there was a girl named Kadi Picinich. Originally, she went by Katie, but at twelve years of age she decided that she needed to differentiate herself from the masses. As she grew older, she realized that a mere change of a three letters to go against tradition would prove symbolic of her life choices.
      Her first love was of the arts. She became an avid photographer, theatre diva and closeted poet. At age ten, she discovered music. It enchanted her in ways she never dreamed possible. The joy she derived from listening to, singing and dancing to music was unparalleled to those she had experienced while composing poetry and stories or holing herself up in a darkroom. She took sporadic and unsuccessful lessons in the piano and violin, but decided a more offbeat instrument—the drums—held her interest more. About the time Kadi bucked against traditional instruments, she bucked against another tradition: the unwritten rule that prepubescent girls had to succumb to pop music. The genre bored her: it was predictable, manufactured and safe. Her curiosities and tendencies required something different: loud, risqué and drum-infused. She settled with punk and rock music.
      At thirteen years of age Kadi settled herself into a stereotype she felt comfortable with: tomboy punk rocker. She wore baggy jeans and lots of jewelry and even convinced her mother to let her dye her hair a natural shade of red. It was also around this time that she bestowed her poetry on others for the first time. One night at summer camp, she sat seven of her cabin mates in the middle of their bunk and read several poems she had written a few weeks prior. They giggled once at a childish turn of phrase Kadi had awkwardly placed in the middle of a serious poem, but otherwise were in awe of her words.
      By the time Kadi hit high school, she had abandoned theatre realizing she was not as talented as her adolescent mind had deluded her. Her interest in photography was waning, her passion for music was as intense as ever, and she was entering poetry contests with the rewards of publications and Editor’s Choice awards. Drum lessons still evaded her, as did social acceptance in her school. This did not deter her, however. She found appropriate outlets for her tastes inside and outside of school and was rather content. She discovered the concert scene and began competing in varsity sports. The love Kadi possessed for the water drove her to play Coed Water Polo in the fall and Coed Swim in the winter and she continued with the first organized sport she ever played—Softball—in the spring.
      High school proved a trying time for Kadi. Her peers were still unable to comprehend her free-spirited ways and her individual mind. Teachers either understood her and embraced her or could not and did not want to bother. However, she found her niche: creative writing magazines and clubs, three varsity sports, advanced photography and the music magazine. By senior year, she had established herself as the resident poet, captain of the Water Polo team and section editor for the concert section of the music magazine. Kadi, however, had a new love: digital filmmaking. The previous summer she had interned at Cavendish College in London, doing just that. It opened a whole new world to Kadi: sight and sound, movement and message. It was photography, poetry and music combined.
      The college process was not difficult at all for Kadi. She wanted sports, she wanted arts, she wanted everything. What else could better fit her than one of the top liberal arts school’s in the country that just also happened to be Division One?
      And so the stage is set for Kadi to move onto the next phase of life. She is ready to greet it with a characteristic ready grin and open arms. She is ready to make full use of the digital film studio, the English Department (with it’s Creative Writing minor), and the athletic facilities. Maybe even a few new things: Latin (the three week trip to Rome is intriguing, because she wants to travel abroad but is wary of doing so in a country where she does not speak the native language,) Astronomy and history classes highlighting periods neglected by her high school curriculum. Kadi wants to design her own education, and perhaps even her own major. She doesn’t quite know what she is going to do, and that delights her more than anything.
      For now, there is no “happily ever after” for Kadi; however, there is no “unhappily ever after” either. There simply isn’t an “ever after.” She still has much of her life’s road to travel first. No one knows what this road has to offer, not even the omniscient writer of this tale.