All About ME

A little quick blerb about me -

My name is Kayla Wickline. I have two beautiful adopted animals who always keep me on my toes. Two years ago I took in a beautiful calico mixed cat named Medusa and in the beginning of this year I adopted my sweet Malamute, Maverick. I grew up in the Linn County area fishing, hiking, camping, and swimming. Rain or shine, you will probably catch me outside. 

I am five years invested into my AAOT at LBCC as of this upcoming fall with a little help from a few OSU courses I took a couple years back. With too much delay and and even more changed plans, I am here to finish strong, despite all of the pit stops I made along the way. I started at LBCC fresh out of high school on full scholarship and flew through two years of education before I knew it, with little to no idea on what I even wanted to do. Four major changes later and I think I've managed to set my sights on a solid goal. I plan on finishing up this degree and transferring back over to OSU in the coming years.

I grew up constantly surrounded by animals. From tiny, squeaky, guinea pigs, all the way to fields filled with horses, my life has always been happily filled with 4 legged friends. I knew at a young age I wanted to help as many animals as I could. My heart has always told me I could help animals of all shapes and sizes but my brain always reminded me I was terrible at math and I had not the slightest idea how biology worked. Needless to say, I beat my own dreams down once I got out into high school and struggled with science and equations. Going into college, I only wanted to take the quickest route I could. Nothing brought me passion or even much interest. I struggled with picking a major when nothing even slightly caught my attention. Instead of setting my mind to what I knew I wanted to do, I settled on whatever advisers would suggest I do. Ultimately, I called it quits. I steadily started to pick up more hours at work and before I knew it I was working two jobs and putting school completely on the back burner.

A year ago, if you would have told me I would be back in school this summer, I would have told you there was absolutely no way in hell. I never thought I would pick something and stick to it. I never thought I could fund another term of school. I never thought I would find my passion. 

Last summer, I decided to pick up my entire life and throw it all in the back seat of my car. I drove 2,274 miles to Buda, Texas. I had not a single clue what Texas was going to bring me but I knew there was a vet assisting job down there that I knew was meant for me. As you can probably tell by referencing back to my first paragraph about being a fifth year LB student, I did not stay in Texas. I did not get the job, (although the day after I moved home to Oregon, they called me back and told me they had reconsidered and thought I was the ideal candidate for the position), and things didn't work out like I had hoped for. God had a different plan for me though. Before I knew it, I was back home with a burning desire to finish my education and start helping animals, like I knew I was always meant to do.

I chose to take Media and Society for two major reasons. For one, the media controls society and every single day we witness it and we are all a part of it. Social media and technology run the world. Secondly, I genuinely wanted to learn. I want to know what draws us to the media and what keeps us hooked. I want to understand why we believe everything and anything we read. I want to know more about fake news and how real news can get covered up. There is so much to learn about the media, how can somebody not be interested? It's day one and I'm already intrigued. I mean, look at me, I made a blog. I don't even know how to set reminders in my iPhone so this is pretty huge. I was thrilled to see this class offered this term to not only see what my peers think of the media's constant influence on society but because there is always so space to learn about what is influencing the headlines along with our thoughts and opinions on such matters.