Kristin Mock – Author Bio

Kristin Mock

Author Bio

Kristin in Las Vegas, Nevada

My name is Kristin Mock, I’m 23 years old, just shy of one year out of my Spanish and comparative literature studies at the University of Georgia, and in addition to writing for BootsnAll, I am, rather unfortunately, experiencing the sometimes unpleasant phenomena of being a feather in the wind. It’s become painfully obvious to me that once your feet lift off the ground, you’re never truly sure what home is anymore. Freedom, breezy air, hot nights, the adrenaline rush of constantly feeling like a square piece to a round puzzle…. I used to wonder how I ever mustered up the courage to go abroad for the first time, and now I wonder if I’ll ever be content to stay put anywhere again.

However, this rambling of self is not meant to discourage – on the contrary, it is meant to greet a world of travelers who, like me, are searching for meaning in this crazy life, in the anticipation that I, too, can someday touch someone’s life like the travelers who have touched mine.

I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, a child of the metropolis South, who never really ventured far from the East Coast or her relatives’ house splattered throughout the country. When I took my first Spanish class in 7^th grade, however, the spark that had been waiting to ignite exploded. Though my teacher was a lunatic, I fell into fascination with the written word in another language, and I knew I would someday go to Spain.

So go to Spain I did, venturing forth during my college years to study Spanish culture and literature at the Universitat di Valencia, in, not surprisingly, Valencia. Like any first American abroad, I had my fits, my mix-ups, and my misfortunes; but not without a whole lot of summer sun, late nights, and long overdue soul-searching. What I found was a young lady who had found the very thing she had lacked for so many years: her identity.

A year later, I spontaneously took a summer job as a foreign leader at an international English school in the ridiculously exotic Malta. There, I lived, breathed, and experienced the real international life, rooming with nine other mates from around the world, including a hysterical Australian and a sweet-natured Czech. We bounced off each other’s energies like firecrackers and somehow survived the craziness of the lazy Italian ways and the wicked Arabic attitudes. I traveled alone to London to see the city life, and I took a boat to Sicily to climb Mt. Etna.

With my last year at the University of Georgia quickly coming to a close, I became restless once again, the fires of travel tickling the back of my throat for another time. I accepted an internship position in Cartagena, Colombia, where I, once again, took off by myself to teach English at the Universidad Technolígica de Bolívar, a lovely private university situated a mere few kilometers from the Caribbean Sea. My life changed extensively during my semester there, for I became an outcast, a celebrity, and enemy, and a friend to so many people all at the same time. I volunteered with the Fundacion Esperanza on the weekends, a non-profit that seeks to educate young street boys on ways to achieve a better life, and I traveled the countryside during my breaks. I saw the Colombia the world is too blind to see: I saw the painful past of Medellín, the metropolitan flair of Bogotá, the soft countryside of Bucaramanga, the laid-back beach life of Santa Marta, Taganga, and Baranquilla, and bartered boat rides to the splattering islands of Barú and Rosario. I unsuccessfully danced salsa, and I am still addicted to the maracuyá, Colombia’s sour passion fruit.

And now, as I have returned home and finished my 15-seconds-of-fame with my BootsnAll autobiography, I wonder if and when my feet will start fidgeting again. Though I adore my family and appreciate my past more now than ever, I spend my days writing, daydreaming, reading Spanish literature, catching up with old friends, and working. I’m trying, in other words, to live in the moment without concentrating too much on the past or present. I’ve discovered that life will work itself out in its own mysterious ways.

In addition to writing for BootsnAll, Kristin Mock has been published in a number of settings in both English and Spanish, including the University of Georgia’s literary magazine and La Universidad Technológica de Bolívar’s editorial. She is the Managing Editor for IQ College Magazine, an upcoming Atlanta magazine for college-bound youth, is regularly published on Associated Content, an online media-sharing website, and edits the monthly newsletter for the Little Princess Foundation. She can be reached at kristin_mock at hotmail dot com.

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