Scars To Stars

In 2021, I was invited to write a chapter for the anthology collection Scars to Stars: Stories of Vulnerability, Resilience, and Overcoming Adversity. The book was published in early 2022.

My chapter, Legacy, tells the story of my family’s grocery business, Tatsuda’s IGA, the generations who built it, the 2020 landslide that destroyed it, and the journey of rebuilding myself in the aftermath.

Reading it now feels emotional for reasons I didn’t expect.

The woman who wrote these words was hopeful. She was clear on the inspirational and purpose-filled path she believed she was living. She had survived the landslide, rebuilt herself in so many ways, and was stepping into a season that felt full of possibility, meaning, connection, creativity, and growth.

What she didn’t yet know was that more life was coming.

She didn’t yet know about the promises of relational safety, vulnerability, and love that would later explode into heartbreak, manipulation, and abuse. She didn’t know she would step into intense public leadership and scrutiny during one of the hardest periods of her life. She didn’t know she would lose her dad. She didn’t know what it would feel like to move from a loud, full house of children, energy, and constant motion into the quiet ache of a nearly empty nest.

She didn’t know that winter would return again sooner than expected and more brutal than ever before.

Reading these words now, I can see how hard she fought to believe in possibility, purpose, healing, connection, and a beautiful future after so much loss.

These last several years have changed me profoundly. I feel the weight and wear of them in ways I couldn’t have understood when I first wrote this piece. And still, somewhere deep inside of me, the gladiator remains.

The part of me that stands back up.The part that keeps loving life despite everything it has held.The part that refuses to believe the story is over.

I still believe what she believed then:

That life can be heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.

That we are the creators of our life, despite what the universe throws at us.

And that even after the harshest winters—

the sun still rises,

flowers still bloom,

and beautiful days are ahead.

What an incredible first half of my life I have lived.

You can read Legacy here:

Scars to Stars - Katherine.pdf

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