Please welcome first-time contributor Katelyn A. Cartwright, a woman from Boone, North Carolina. Katelyn is studying Social Work at Appalachian State University. She is a survivor of sexual assault and is living with Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety, and Anorexia Nervosa. Photography has always been her main means of therapy when other forms of help seemed far off. She enjoys taking portraits, mountain landscapes, and is especially skilled at closeups. She has learned much from her journey so far, and is eager to see where life will take her.
About this photo: “Photo was taken at Thunder Hill Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway, Boone NC. Atelophobia is the fear of not being good enough. I managed to spend much of my first two years of college hating myself and my body, cycling from intense, mind numbing mania to crippling depression. I felt caged, out of control, and like I was not enough for anyone, and then a switch would flip and I was superman, invincible and immune to everything. Lately the mania is hiding, but the depression remains. My own little curse, if you will. My brain has two halves, one that is polite and kind to me, and the other who is as terrifying and verbally abusive as my ex girlfriend. What matters is which side I chose to listen to from now on. I will not chose to listen to the shitty side. There is a phrase on the Bendlerblock in Berlin; (the site of the memorial for the German Resistance of WWII). The quote, in Old German, reads: Ihr Trugt die Schande nicht, ihr Wehrtet euch. In English, it means: You did not bear the shame, you resisted. I no longer bear the shame of my past, I did not bear the shame then, I don’t bear it now, and I will not bear it again.”
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