Daily Inspiration: Meet Kaitlyn Corry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaitlyn Corry.

Hi Kaitlyn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always been a good listener. I have always been curious. I have always been sensitive. My personal relationships with people have always ranked high on my life’s priority list and I pride myself on taking in an interest in the full, complex elements of people’s lives and cheering them on from the sidelines. I have this thing where I love to hear other people’s stories but don’t like sharing much about myself. I can listen for hours and hours about a person’s journey: their hopes, their fears, the obstacles they’ve overcome and the battles they’re still fighting. It comes so naturally to me to lend a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. I am a sounding board. I have always been this way. I have always taken a deep interest in the lives of others. I love to observe, to listen, and to help where I can. As a child, I would make friends easily. And whenever anyone shared with me their thoughts or feelings, it stayed with me. I would think about them long after our conversation was over. I would quietly wonder how Brianne did on the presentation she was worried about sharing in front of the class if Meaghan passed her spelling test if Gabby was still upset about getting embarrassed in front of everyone on the playground. I would observe the world around me and not be able to share what I had seen and heard. I have always felt like perhaps I am too sensitive for this world. Like I didn’t fully develop the ability to brush things off easily. My mom’s friend, Ellen, used to tease me by asking, “Did you cry yet today? I think you’ve cried every day since you were born.” And she was right. That’s still just as true today at 34 as it was then at six. I cry at commercials, a sweet caption, seeing someone else succeed or fail. I cry tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of fear and even some inexplicable ones. I now call this empathy.

When I learned the word empathy, it was like the sun broke through the clouds and I had an explanation for this specific and overwhelming emotion that I had been feeling since childhood. It all made sense and I no longer felt like I was too sensitive for this world, but rather, a person who could use this to help change the world. This notion birthed: WonderFilledWeek. My baby. My podcast. My brand. My unique fingerprint. WonderFilledWeek started with the intention of balancing out some of the negativity of social media and the web as a whole. Social Media can be a dangerous place of judgment, cruelty and comparison. I wanted to have a space that was free from those traps and focused instead on wellness, self-love, self-acceptance, mental health awareness, and yes – those stories that I have always loved to hear and now love to share! The Instagram element of WonderFilledWeek focuses on art, poetry, motivational messages, daily affirmations and spotlights on people I am inspired by, who I invite onto the podcast. I call these inspirational humans “WonderFilled Warriors”. The podcast is meant to be a “feel-good” show that inspires listeners to know their worth, chase their dreams and love themselves. Each episode is unique. The podcast also offers mini-series including “The Passion Meets Purpose Series” where I welcomed small business owners, a doula, and a non-profit organization founder. “The 65 Roses Series” zoomed in on a family whose lives have been impacted by Cystic Fibrosis. “The Life Series” included episodes on the topics of miscarriage, addiction & recovery, adoption and the BLM movement. Other special guests have included author and podcast host Danny Pellegrino, who is featured in the “Men and Mental Health” episode, and actress, host, and singer Nikki Boyer who spoke to “Life After Loss”. WonderFilledWeek is so special to me. It has given me purpose, especially during Covid, to spread love, positivity and hope.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road per say. Like anything else in life, there have been ups and downs and growing pains. Oftentimes, my anxiety plants a seed of self-doubt in my mind and I second-guess my vision and my art and ask myself if this ‘silly thing’ is even serving a purpose. When trying to keep the podcast “light and fluffy” I felt it hard to get on the mic and be honest. It was a rough patch for this passion project when after the first three episodes, I truly couldn’t record. I went three full months with no new podcast content and was ready to give up when my husband, Ryan, encouraged me to record a short solo episode opening up about my anxiety and what I was feeling. It was a pivotal moment for me and for WonderFilledWeek. It was no longer about being light and fluffy but rather about being real and authentic. From that moment on, the podcast has grown and evolved. I am thankful to my husband for the push I needed and I am proud of the fact that I didn’t give up.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a podcast host. My podcast is called WonderFilledWeek and can be found on all major streaming platforms. The intention of WonderFilledWeek is to uplift listeners. I welcome a wide variety of guests from authors and artists to reformed gang members and reiki healers. My guests open up and share their journeys with the audience and offer nuggets of wisdom for listeners to take with them. I am proud of what the podcast is evolving into. What started out as a “positivity podcast” has organically morphed into an “honest podcast”. What I mean by that is people don’t necessarily always connect with platitudes or toxic positivity, but rather with people being candid about overcoming real-life struggles and seeking the silver lining; being in love with life each and every day despite the battles they’ve fought. People connect with real. While I have always found it difficult to be vulnerable and share about my own life’s struggles, the podcast has pushed me outside of my comfort zone to share details of my own anxiety, depression and personal losses. My guests inspire me. The listeners who write in inspire me. The exchanges are authentic. It feels real and really feels good. WonderFilled even.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I don’t often lead with too much personal information about my life (working on that!), but one thing that people may not realize about me is that my college-sweetheart and now husband, Ryan, lives with a terminal illness called Cystic Fibrosis. Prior to meeting Ryan at 20, I had never heard of this genetically-transmitted illness. Over the last decade and a half, CF has really impacted both Ryan’s personal life and our shared life as a couple. I mention this because in a bout of deep depression in 2017 and on the heels of a lost pregnancy, Ryan was in and out of the hospital for 2-week “tuneups” 4 times in one calendar year. I was really at a loss. I felt so low. I would lay curled up in a chair next to his bed in a dark hospital room at USC lit up only by the blue light of my cell phone and scroll through social media for hours at a time, consuming people’s pregnancy announcements, celebrations, girls nights out and vacations. I’d feel so alone. I felt like everyone else’s life was picture perfect and ours was in a downward spiral of loss, grief and fear. Ryan, the rock of my life, always sound – even in the thick of it all – reminded me that no one posts the bad stuff. The ugly stuff. The hard stuff. And I sat with that, really taking in what he said. Thus birthed my idea for WonderFilledWeek. A place where people can be less than picture perfect, where they can share the good, the bad and the ugly of the human experience with the subtle reminders that this too shall pass: that no feeling is final and that your today is not yours forever. I never dreamed the darkest days of my life would lead me to my happiest ones. My favorite quote is by activist Christine Caine: “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.” I was planted and it was time to bloom. Life is still not picture-perfect and likely will never be – but I am slowly blooming in my own time and that feels good.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://anchor.fm/kaitlyn-corry
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderfilledweek/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WonderFilledWeek/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wonderfilledwk
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderfilledweek/id1455297923

Image Credits:
Logo – Artist: Emmy Lupin