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@kaytspapertrail -

About Kayt

Hi, I’m Kayt.

I’m a planner enthusiast, writer, and lifelong language nerd living in Arizona’s high desert—where snow on a cactus is just part of winter. This space is for the things that keep me grounded: planning, learning, creativity, and finding meaning in a full (and very real) life.

I share that life through Kayt’s Paper Trail, my YouTube channel all about planning, stationery, and using paper to make sense of busy seasons. My videos are calm, practical, and intentionally low-pressure—like planning alongside a friend rather than chasing perfection. You can also find related designs and resources in my Etsy shop.

Writing is at my core. I’ve published a novel (the first in a series I hope to continue), short stories, poetry, and a novella. On Substack at Mending the Rift, I explore politics, power, and accountability with clarity over outrage and understanding over division. I also offer tutoring and proofreading support, helping with writing, research, editing, and learning strategies in a friendly, collaborative way.

Outside of writing and planning, you’ll find me baking, gardening, watching birds and squirrels at my window, or tinkering with paper layouts. I’m learning Mandarin (slowly, imperfectly, but with enthusiasm), enjoy telenovelas and British TV (Come Dine With Me, Friday Night Dinner, Shetland, Vera), love sharks, and occasionally indulge in plausible ghost stories.

I’m a proud dog mom, a devoted feeder of stray cats, a museum nerd, and a defender of the Oxford comma. Life doesn’t need to be optimized to be meaningful—and that’s exactly what I hope this corner of the internet feels like: a place to learn, create, and plan alongside someone who gets it.


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Popular Previous Posts

I Made the Mistake of Reading the Comments

@kaytspapertrail -
I live in southern Arizona. There was a shooting here this morning by Border Patrol. Local. Immediate.  I clicked on a news article trying to understand what happened — and then I made the mistake of reading the comments. It didn’t take long before reality dissolved completely. People were saying ICE makes them feel safer. Not cautiously. Not with qualifiers. With chest-out confidence. From there, the conversation slid — predictably, inevitably — into a Fox News–approved rerun of the Alex Pretti shooting. Not because it was relevant. Not because it clarified anything about what happened here. But because it’s now a talisman. A loyalty test. A script. One guy even posted the photo of Pretti being disarmed and claimed the agent walking away with the gun was actually Pretti approaching ICE with his weapon drawn. That’s not an interpretation. That’s a complete inversion of what’s visible to the human eye. This is how it works now: One angle. One story. Nothing else allowed. How can you...
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My Word of the Year for 2026: FlowWard

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Every December, I start thinking about the year ahead - not in terms of rigid goals or impossible resolutions, but in terms of how I want the year to feel . For 2026, my word of the year is FlowWard . OK, I know it's not a real word - but I wanted something that embodies both going with the flow but still going forward.  Not forward in the hustle-y, grind-yourself-into-dust sense. And not flow as in drifting aimlessly and hoping things work out. FlowWard is about moving ahead gently, deliberately, and sustainably; making progress without forcing it. Why “FlowWard”? For a long time, productivity felt like pressure to me. Do more. Be faster. Push harder. Keep up. Somewhere along the way, that mindset stopped working. It led to burnout, stalled projects, and the constant feeling that I was behind—even when I was doing a lot.  And that's all before crashing into heap physically and literally getting behind. FlowWard is my rejection of my previous approach. It’s the idea...
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Just for the hell of it ...

@kaytspapertrail -
I asked ChatGPT:  I don’t know a lot about his health, but I know: he’s 80, been overweight by probably 60lbs for probably 25 years, isn’t sleeping properly at night but falls asleep in the middle of the day frequently, eats mainly fast food - burgers fried chicken etc - and has always eaten this way, considers golf enough exercise (uses a golf cart), has swollen ankles, terrible bruises on the back of his hands (like from infusions or blood draws), slurs his words, uses wrong words that sound alike, sometimes just makes sounds as if he gave up on trying to say a word. He has had repeated MoCas (more than one per year) and brags about having “aced” them but I’ve never seen the results myself. He also had 2 MRIs 6months apart, but he won’t tell me what they were of/for. He does not smoke or drink. I think that’s pretty much all I know. What do you think is happening?   This was the response:  I’m going to answer this carefully, because what you’re describing is not subtle...
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