Homecoming

Homecoming isn’t a final destination — it’s a state I returned to in moments, sometimes losing it, sometimes finding it again.
It’s where strength meets softness, where self-trust takes root, and where pride in who I’ve become rises above what I’ve endured.
These pieces are about arriving, not back to who I was, but forward into someone stronger, clearer, and wholly my own, even if I had to arrive there more than once.

Two glass bowls filled with frozen fruit, whipped cream, and a cherry on top sit side by side on a kitchen counter. The setting is warm and intimate, evoking a sense of shared ritual or relationship.

I Thought I Was Ready

But even after years of healing, I still mistook toxicity for depth, and manipulation for love, until I finally stopped gaslighting myself and believed me

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Aug 14, 20254 min read

Holy Shit, That Was Hard

I swallowed silence instead of screaming, wrote truth instead of texting, chose no contact while my whole nervous system ached for just one drop of the poison I finally stopped calling love.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Aug 10, 20252 min read

Joy and Peace Walked Beside of Me

This weekend was filled with simple things—family, sunflowers, blueberry buckets— and somewhere in the middle of it, Peace and Joy walked beside me again.

The Fog

Katherine Tatsuda

Aug 3, 20251 min read

He Called Me Kitten

He called me Kitten, soft, sweet, and easy to control. For a while, I played the part, quiet and grateful for scraps of affection. But my voice was never gone. It was hypnotized.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Aug 2, 20252 min read

After Everest

It didn’t demand my destruction. It didn’t steal my breath. It simply let me be.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Jul 31, 20251 min read

He asked me "Do you feel safe?" | Emotional Safety

Safety is a fundamental human need. I didn't know I needed emotional safety until I fell in love with a man who promised it to me. When that promise dissolved into a bucket of lies, I created it inside of myself.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Jul 31, 20253 min read

She thought something was wrong with her. She was wrong.

For a long time, I believed I was broken. At twelve, I asked to go to “Fat Camp,” thinking if I could just shrink, I’d finally be enough. I smiled through the shame, but inside was chaos. This is the story of how I stopped trying to disappear, and started creating myself instead.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Jul 30, 20254 min read

Woman sitting in the aftermath of psychological abuse believing in herself and what is next.

What Was Real? | A Personal Journey Through Psychological Abuse Recovery

When the truth surfaced, it wasn’t just the relationship that ended. It was the reality I thought I was living. This is a story about the wreckage, the reckoning, and the quiet rebuilding of a self I almost lost. Breath by breath. Wave by wave. Back to what was always real.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Jul 28, 20252 min read

The Tipping Point | When Kindness Becomes Self Betrayal

There comes a moment, quiet, sharp, unmovable, when something inside you finally says no more. For me, it wasn’t the lies I uncovered or even seeing him with someone new. It was when he asked me to be kind.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Jul 28, 20252 min read

I sat with myself—and for the first time, I didn’t run. This photo is the after. The proof. The woman who stayed, and learned to love the one person she was never supposed to abandon: herself.

I Am The One Who Stayed | Self Love Mastery

I used to think strength meant pushing through, holding it in, staying silent. But real strength? It was staying when the tears came. Sitting with the girl I once was, holding her hand through the grief. Becoming the woman who could finally say: I am safe. I am loved. I am mine. This is self-love, not just a buzzword, but a sacred practice. This is mastery.

Homecoming

Katherine Tatsuda

Jul 26, 20251 min read