My Biography

Kristen Rene M^cKinley

Hometown: Rossville, Indiana

Birthdate: February 3, 1985

Family

My parents’ names are Ed and Carrie, and they were high school sweethearts.  They had known each other all of their lives, as they were both born and raised in Rossville.  They got married the summer after they graduated from Rossville High School and that November, my sister Sara was born (more about her later).  My parents both graduated from Purdue University, both with teaching degrees.  However, Dad has never been a teacher.  I think that he’s held just about every other job, from Hostess truck driver, to welder, to what he is now, which is an electrician at Chrysler.  He’s always wanted to teach, but having a young family to provide for and college loans to pay off always meant having the best paying job possible.  Mom is a remedial math and English teacher for grades K-3.  She really loves her job, and she’s amazing at it.  She’s only worked at Rossville Elementary School, which is combined in the same building as the middle and high schools. Sara is a senior at Purdue and an athletic training major.  We’re pretty close, especially now that we don’t see each other regularly.  In November she turns twenty-one, which is news-worthy to me.  I’ve also got a dog named Ariel that is really old- almost fourteen. We got her the year that The Little Mermaid came out, thus the name. 

Friends

Two of my closest friends from home go to BSU. I actually lived with Lindsey Vick (pictured left) my freshman year, and our friend Maggie also lived on the same floor. We’ve all been through some seriously rough times together, so I’m very lucky to have two people here that know me as well as they do.  Unfortunately, several of the great friends that I made in my first year are not returning!  I can't complain, though. I'm lucky enough to have some wonderful friends in common with with my boyfriend Ryan.  He is also definitely one of my best friends.  He deals with a lot of the negative about me that no one else sees.  Of course I’m a habitual friend-maker, so if you’re reading this, consider yourself on the list.

Rossville High School

In order to understand me, you have to know a little bit about my alma mater.  We had a graduating class of seventy-two people- the largest ever in the history of RHS.  As a small school, the same people seemed to always be doing the same things.  All athletes were almost without exception two-sporters, if not three.  I was in a leadership position of the majority of our clubs, and I got to be on the homecoming and prom courts as well.  Just to give you some idea as to how involved I was in high school, I was the president of the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, vice- president of the speech team, which is a member of the National Forensic League, vice- president of 100% Natural, an organization for students that commit themselves to an alcohol, tobacco, totally drug- free lifestyle in high school, vice- president of the Spanish Club, editor- in- chief of the newspaper and of the yearbook, announcer for girls' volleyball, basketball, and softball, and I was also in drama and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  One of the best things about being so insanely involved in high school is that it really prepared me for college.  I'm not finding it difficult to budget my time and balance work, school, and a social life.  Being that involved also gave me the opportunity to travel.  I was the state champion in FCCLA for three years running, so I got to see Anaheim, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia.  I also went to Atlanta for speech nationals the summer after my senior year.
Most recent graduates of RHS will tell you what a horrible experience living in such a small town was, but I don’t feel that way.  Rossville used to be the bane of my existence, but during my senior year, I realized that if I hadn’t lived there all of my life, I wouldn’t be the person that I am now.  The picture that I have posted right here is my entire  graduating class. 

When I came to Ball State, I was positive that I would major in News-Ed Journalism and Poli-Sci and minoring in Spanish.  Now I'm thinking that I may double major in News- Ed Journalism and English with a minor in Spanish.  Of course, that will probably change by the end of this semester, too.  I’m not completely sure what I’d like to do, but I think that I’d like to be a copy editor for a major publication or work behind the scenes in television.  Lately I've thought that it would be a lot of fun to work at a bilingual magazine.  I’ve always dreamed of being the editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone, but we’ll see about that…  Most girls my age are envisioning their lives ten years down the road being married with kids, but I don’t really see that for myself.  I want to travel and live life to the absolute fullest before I even think about settling down. I don't think that I'd make a very good wife or mother if there were things out there that I never got the opportunity to see or do.  When I do settle down, I think that I'd like to be a high school English teacher and maybe do some freelance copy editing on the side. 

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