Just 3 weeks after my mom graduated from UK, I was born on June 6, 1985 in Lexington, KY. Before 2nd grade, I had lived in Columbus, OH; Madison, WI; Lexington (again); Boca Raton and Orlando, FL. Then we moved to Chicago.
I went to public school in Chicago for a year. That was where I learned I could run fast and that the library is a good place to hide. Then I went to Pilgrim Lutheran, where there were 19 kids in my grade. In 7th grade we moved to the suburbs, and despite the fact that I spent a whole summer crying, dyed my hair weird colors to be ‘hard-core’ and was determined to make no friends, I still made friends.
I went to Glenbrook South High School, which was hard, like harder than college. I was on the cross-country and track team. I was also on the Math team, the Academic Bowl team, Marching Band, Student Council, Homecoming Committee, Key Club Board, a bunch of random shit and Speech Team, which was hard-fucking-core. I won State at one of those things, guess which one? Also, one time I convinced Natalie to get me elected Homecoming Attendant (which is like Junior Princess). I got a tiara, a sash and a necklace. Really.
I only applied to colleges on the coasts and I ended up at UC Berkeley, where I started out as a Physics and English double-major. But I didn’t like berets or lab. I tried alot of different sports: fencing, taekwondo, club soccer, rugby. But after a girl broke her patella at rugby and I was still banned from “contact sports” because of the mono, I decided that was a bad idea. I spent 3 months living in Morocco Summer of 2005, but it was pretty shitty. So, instead of going to Egypt, I came back to the US.
Junior year I started triathlon, which my family thought was funny since I swore off bikes when I was 11. (I never liked them anyway.) I have had somewhere around 10 concussions, which is a few more than as many times as I’ve been to the ER. Though some of my family thinks triathlon is dangerous, most of the concussions came from indoor soccer, only one came from falling off my bike. I’ve also had some huge number of seizures. I’m just not really suppose to go scuba-diving or hang-gliding or anything else dumb. One time I got my front tooth knocked in (not out) and one time I landed on the edge of the pool on my chin.
After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in International Political Economy (no, it’s not a made-up Berkeley major, I studied real things), I worked as an Assistant Editor at Senses Magazine in Sacramento. After 4 years of working on the Berkeley Political Review at Cal (it’s a magazine) and working in politics and studying them, I was really tired of political campaigns, even though I never actually worked on a campaign. I started freelance writing and doing some design work, instead, and I love journalism, specifically magazines. Now, I work as a reporter for the Marinscopes Newspapers.
Eventually, I’m going to start my own magazine. No, really. I also plan on becoming a TV show host (there’s alot of cable channels), but that’s after I become a fabulously famous triathlete. Or something.
Contact me at kelly@kellydunleavy.com
Kelly Amanda Dunleavy
