[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!
Melanie Faith
Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.
Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.
The Society of Professional Journalists
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.
Maxine Greene
Philosopher and Education Scholar
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The Gift You Did Not Ask For
THE UNCHOSEN OBJECT
I was diagnosed with Turner syndrome in 1987 at the age of 15. I did not talk about my diagnosis until I was in my 30s and participated in a week-long study at the National Institutes of Health. Shame, fear, and anger yield powerful silence. I wrote about the study in the Washingtonian, The Unspeakable Gift. Turner syndrome is a leading cause of miscarriages. Genetic conditions express themselves in unique ways depending on the genetic makeup of the person involved. Chronic conditions — by definition — have no cure. I had to learn too much, too soon.
THE FIVE PARTICULARS
Frequent blood draws. Daily hormone replacement therapy. Failing to reach the top shelf at the grocery store. New doctors that ask, “when was your last period,” not understanding that Turner syndrome means, for me, I have never had a period. Being close enough to smell the airbag in the steering wheel when I drive.
THE SURRENDER
“Because I cannot change it …” I speak up after being silent for more than 30 years. I am vigilant, curious, and informed. I learn about genes, hearts, and fertility. I tell my story again and again and again. I advocate, create, and build. I dream, soften, and flex. I accept, move, and grow. I breathe into what is and imagine what can be. Breath and imagination are the heart of surrender. Change and shift happen gradually as I move through holding and sharing my body, mind, and spirit. Because of Turner syndrome, life’s finitude has always been front and center in my mind. When I was diagnosed, just a few years following development of technology to look closely at genes, life expectancy for people with Turner syndrome was around 35. That understanding changed my understanding of life. Life itself is a miracle. Birth and death are miracles. In between, it’s all about surrender.
THE HIDDEN GRATITUDE
I am grateful for fearlessness and fluidity. I grateful for my strength and my beautifully chronically human body. I am grateful for my understanding of mortality as an invitation to live fully. I am grateful for my voice and the knowledge that I am unique and required by my very existence to be a creator of things, truth teller, and story weaver. Turner syndrome has taught me to pay attention to my body and my world.
About Katie
From Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.
