Meteorology
Believe it or not, young Mikayla was terrified of thunderstorms. Actually, let me recap that...Young Mikayla was afraid of tornadoes. I used to build forts on days that looked green. I would huddle under blankets while listening to the rain pound down on our tin roof. I would watch the weather channel or the News station or radio to listen for Tornado Warnings so I could yell to my mom we needed to run to grandmother's house because we lived in a trailer. I remember the first time it hailed badly, I was super excited but super scared because TORNADO! Kid me was so silly. I grabbed a handful of the dime-sized hail and observed its flatness, pondering...how does hail form but we can't even get snow here?
I would stand outside on the breezy days right before the storm, watching the clouds come in, listening to the distant roar of thunder. Preparing myself for a restless evening under my fort. Fear in the pit of my stomach that a tornado was coming. It didn't help that my dad would tell "looks like a tornado kinda storm" and stuff. Goodness. But through my fear I became focused.
When I was 11 I was sitting in my first Geo science class in the 6th grade. I was super intrigued with everything we learned and I absorbed more in this class then any other class. But the one area that intrigued me the most were the clouds. We learned the different types and how they formed. We maybe spent a day or two going over them but I was so interested because knowing clouds would help determine the weather if you knew what you were looking for. I would watch the skies taking note of the different clouds from then on out. I was conquering the weather. I watched the weather channel a lot and watched some movies and the storm chasers on TV. My fear for the storms became less of a fear but more of a rush. I would tell my parents a morning before a storm was to come that there would be a storm by evening without looking at anything but the sky. I had become so good at predicting a storm in a days time that I challenged myself to do it without ever looking at weather reports.
Come at me storms!
Anyways, I knew from then on I wanted to study the atmosphere and be a meteorologist. I didn't focus much on it in high school because I became too focused on boys and having fun with my friends. I kinda put the passion on the back burner, still knowing when it would rain and working my skills, but never putting it to use. I regret that now because I would have done SO much more to prepare myself for it. When it was time to apply to college I was a bit hesitant on what I wanted to do. I was mostly being peered pressured into it because I was so uncertain about this college thing that I really didn't want to go. I had forgotten about my passion for weather. I was going to settle for General Studies...Tyler and I were in the library at school during our lunch to apply to ULM. He was doing music, like the bandee he was/is, and as he was looking for his major he was calling out the different majors for me. It didn't take long before he said "Atmospheric Science" that I remembered my amount of interest in the weather.
THAT! I will do that! I've always wanted to be a meteorologist and I love weather. Where have I been?!
Only I wasn't too involved to enjoy school. I did not like college. I felt confused, lost, hopeless, and alone. My friends had moved on without me that were at college and my non college friends would get mad when I turned them down to do homework with college friends. And I was soooo stressed out.
I stopped going. I did the anxious thing and just stopped. I did try dropping the classes, and I did complete 2 classes with a B and an D. But all the others were FLUNKED.
So, even though I felt the urge to be one of those weather dorks, and I felt I belonged there, I had bigger and better things planned, like living in different cities and experiencing life and learning to finance and joys and happiness. I got engaged. Had a baby. And the urge to go back came back. I needed to focus on my weather passion more hardcore than usual. So I went to a Skywarn class, signed back up to school, began spotting storms, doing hardcore research and chasing storms. I'm no pro but I am knowledgeable.
This passion is something I am SOOO glad I picked back up because it am so happy to be finally focused and known for my love for weather. I cannot wait to see where it takes me!
