GuthrieAmerica Story: Meet Katelyn Hinkle

I’m Katelyn Hinkle. I was raised in the best town in America - Guthrie!

What makes it the best you ask? Well in Guthrie, I love seeing someone I know everywhere I go and knowing that if someone is going through a tough time, our community always has his or her back and is always willing to help at any time. The amount of support you get from this whole town is amazing and something you cannot get anywhere else. I truly believe our community is something special.

My whole family lives in and grew up in Guthrie. There are a few relatives who live in Edmond or OKC, but the majority of both sides of my family live at the most 10 minutes away so it's nice to be able to see most of them very often.

I graduated from Guthrie High School in 2014, and was very involved. I was in dance at Dance With Me (16 years), track (four years), cheer (two years), student council (three years), FCA (four years), link crew (two years). High school was a great time for me and provided great memories to look back on.

When I was in high school, before we were about to graduate, everyone was "so ready to leave." They would say “I’m leaving this town and never coming back." But, the truth is, no matter how much you hated high school growing up here or wished you had something fun to do when there was nothing to do, you will always want to come back here at some point in your life. We sometimes take for granted the uniqueness we have in Guthrie and the support this town has. To me that's so, so important. No matter where I go in life, Guthrie will always have a special place in my heart and I hope to raise my future family here.

Although there's not much to do in Guthrie, you learn to make do with what you have here in town. We think of stuff some people would never think to do if they lived somewhere else that offered a bunch to do. My friends and I like to go to the drive-in, ride bikes around town, go to Red Brick Nights, shop at Boutique 206, go to football games (our town is the true definition of "Friday Night Lights") and in the summer we will sometimes go "explore" in town and the historic sites we have here. We have always wanted to go inside the old hospital because we hear it's haunted.

My favorite Guthrie-related memory would probably be when I won homecoming queen my senior year. That whole day from the assembly to the parade and then the game was one of the best days of my life.

My first job when I was 16 was at The Guthrie Golf and Country Club as a lifeguard and I have been doing it every summer since. I grew up spending my summers there. This is my fourth year to lifeguard. I’m also working at the Guthrie YMCA at the front desk and have been working there for about three months.

I follow GuthrieAmerica on Instagram and I see their shirts in Boutique 206.

I like to wear my GA tee-shirt because I love the town I'm from and I'm proud to say this is my hometown! Let's be real, whenever someone finds out I'm from Guthrie, his/her usual response is - "they kicked our butt in football."

Once a bluejay, always a bluejay!

Shout out to my parents for staying in the town they grew up in and letting us grow up here!