Who Is Kat?

Katherine Bein, 21

My name is Katherine Bein. I am 21 years old, and am currently enrolled in the Univeristy of Florida's College of Journalism. I am extremely excited to be living in the future.

I was born in Hollywood, Florida, and spent my childhood in a place called Cooper City. When I was a small child, it would be fair to say that Cooper City was just a cow town situated on the edge of the Everglades. By the time I had turned 17, it was basically one giant CVS attached to a Super Wallmart.

When I graduated from Cooper City High School, I ran as far away from that horrible plot of concrete as I could and still manage to collect Bright Future's. I moved to Tallahassee and enrolled into Florida State University's undergraduate program. It was there that I learned to be on my own. I had a most wonderful time in that tiny town. But I realized one day that my education had no real direction, and after a bit of soul searching, I decided I wanted to study journalism. FSU has no journalism program what-so-ever, so I figured the only thing I could do was transfer to UF, which happens to house one of the best journalism schools in the country. Happilly, I was accepted into the then smallest class of transers the university had ever accepted.

Now, here I am.

What Does Kat Do?

Besides going to school, I have two part-time jobs. I work at Forever 21 in the Oaks Mall, selling people clothing and generally eaves-droping on conversations to laugh about them later with my coworkers. Watch what you say in the fitting room girls.

I'm also on staff at the Independant Florida Alligator. I cover the cop beat, allowing me access to all the dirty things Gainesvillians get themselves into each night, as well as write a weekly column entitled "This Week in Gainesville History". Putting that together is one of the more fun things that I get to do all week. The past is a plethora of awesome.

What Does She Like?

I am totally addicted to dance music. I love Daft Punk, Justice, Major Lazer, SebastiAn, TEPR, Boys Noize, Modeselektor, etc. I think dancing is the best thing you can do with all your limbs. I like to do a dance called Tektonic, which is basically the best thing white kids have going for them since the Hokey Pokey.

I also love driving long distances on the highway. I think the highway system is like America's veins. Beautiful drags for miles and miles. Of course, some places are just not accessible by car, especially when you drive an 11-year-old hunk of junk like me. Traveling is what makes my world go round.