At the young age of 4, college student Kelli Rotondo found herself looking out of her bedroom window. A curious child, she often looked out the window of her childhood home in Belleville, New Jersey in excitement. Little did she know that what she saw that day would be a something that shaped her life forever.
“I was looking out my bedroom window and I just remember seeing a little boy’s blue eyes staring back at me. He had blonde hair too. I screamed at the top of my lungs and I was like ‘mom come in here there’s a little boy in my window.’ She walked up to my window and there was no one there. She looked out the window and there was no one there. I’ll never forget that,” said Rotondo.
Now, at 22-years-old, Rotondo is a practicing psychic medium, using her unique gift to help people connect with loved ones who have passed on. “My gift is that I can talk to people that have passed over and what happens is when I meet someone, usually the people who they loved are around them still. I’ll receive their messages by seeing film strips or hearing thoughts. It’s a really cool experience to connect with souls.”
Rotondo has been able to communicate with spirits for most of her life. Throughout her teen years she struggled with accepting her gift, stating that she lacked confidence in herself and often worried about how people might react to her abilities. However, she describes a tragic event in her life as being the motivation she needed to embrace the side of her that she long tried to ignore.
“The first time I connected with someone on the other side was when my best friend lost her boyfriend last year very suddenly and tragically. After he passed, I began to see some sort of outline of him around her. He showed me a poster of his favorite band. I didn’t know it was his favorite band or how connected he was to it. He showed me moments between them that I would never have known if I weren’t talking to him. That’s how I knew I could really help people with this. I really could connect them and let them know that their loved ones are still here even if they aren’t here physically anymore.”
Rotondo, a Psychology major, hopes to become a social worker upon graduation. She has also started her own business through her Facebook page, “Kelli Rotondo Psychic Medium.” When asked about what kind of feedback she has received from clients and the occasional skeptics, she says that she isn’t looking to prove anything to anyone, but hopes to make positive changes in people’s lives.
“A girl the other day said ‘I’m a psychology major, this isn’t real.’ And I said I’m a psychology major too. I love psychology and I study it, but this has nothing to do with psychology. It’s something that is unexplainable. After I gave her a reading she was wondering how I knew all of this stuff about her, and I can’t tell you why either. All I can say is that it’s something of a higher power, and I believe that’s why I have this gift.”