Personal Profile

Kindergarten, where I learned to comb my own hair!!

My name is Kim Taylor, and my email address is kltaylor@bradley.edu  My mother named me “Kim” because she knew someone with a daughter named Kim and she liked it.  I grew up in St. Charles, Michigan.

  

 I am married with two kids.  Both of my parents passed away.  My father at age 33 from pneumonia, and my mother at age 45 from leukemia.  My mother was half Sicilian, her father was born in Sicily.  My grandfather saw my great grandfather shot by "The Family" when he was five.  Our family was always very close, I used to know all of my cousins.  I tried to instill that importance of family to my kids.

  

My niece recently described me as the kindest, strongest, and happiest person she knows.  I think those are pretty good J  My three most favorite social recreational activities are going to the movies with family or friends, attending band events where my kids are playing, and just hanging out with friends.  The riskiest thing I think I've ever done is reconnecting with a friend from my past who is in prison for first degree murder.  I had no idea what to expect, what all these years in prison may have done to him.  I am glad I did though ;)  My most unforgettable experience would be seeing the hole in my daughter's cheek when she was about two years old, after having been bitten in the face by a dog.  It was a very scary experience as a parent.
 

I have exceeded the 30 years of planetary occupation and what I didn't know at age 18, was how the loss of my parents would impact me later on.  Now that I am older, there are a lot of things I wish I could tell my mother, and a lot of things I would like to ask her.  So I try to stay in touch with people I love, because you never know when their time of planetary occupation will be up.

One thing I’ve done that I don’t think anyone else has likely done is spending Christmas Eve in a Michigan Department of Corrections (prison) visiting a friend from my past who murdered his 13-year old uncle when he was 15. If I could have lunch with any person living or dead, I would have lunch with my father.  My parents divorced before I was three, and I never knew my father.  All I know of him I have learned from a few relatives.  Taking classes at Bradley has greatly reduced my recreational reading.  In the past, I read "Purpose Driven Life" and I really liked what Rick Warren wrote.  I read the book, "30 Days to Live" which was a unique influence considering the fact I lost both parents so early.  I also read "Under the Overpass" by Mike Yankoski, and learned a great deal about the misconceptions of being homeless, and how Christians actually treat the homeless.  Good book, I'd highly recommend it :)
 

I am taking classes at Bradley because I work here.  I accepted a job at Bradley only because I found a job comparable to my position at the University of Iowa, and they offered me the position.  I didn’t know anything about Bradley when I first started working here, other than it was closer to where I now live than Iowa City, Iowa.

I really enjoyed the Public Relations class, the Public Relations Writing class, and the Composition class.  I can’t say I earned “A”s in all three though, in one I bombed the final exam….long story….  My least favorite classes at Bradley so far are Communication Theories (300), Survey of Communication (101), and Introduction to Media Production (112) class only because I didn’t like the instructor’s teaching style.  My goal for taking classes at Bradley is to better prepare myself for a position in Public Relations.  I am employed full time at Bradley, however, I have always been interested in Public Relations and would like to make a career change.