I graduated from Wayne County High School before attending Mississippi College, where I majored and minored English. (When you have one talent, you stick with it!) While in college, I worked in the Writing Center, served as the general editor of the campus creative-arts journal and copy-edited the school’s newspaper, so I found myself constantly surrounded by words and people who loved them, which was just what I’d always wanted.
My high-school lab partner and best friend, Nate Schumann, holds the deputy editor title at the JFP, and he had been after me to write for the publication since he accepted a job there. In college, I always brushed him off, telling him I didn’t have time with all the papers I was already writing. When I moved back to Jackson in May, he stopped taking no for an answer, and I haven’t looked back.
I try to say yes to every story that’s offered to me, so I’ve done a little of everything, from Best of Jackson features to film reviews. Every minute I’ve spent writing for the JFP has been a joy—I love hearing the stories of my fellow Jacksonians, so my favorite part of my job is bringing those stories to life so that others in the metro area can recognize the talent and innovation all around them.
Although it may go without saying, I love to write. I’m currently writing my first novel (a murder mystery), and I love to read and watch TV, so consuming stories in whatever form they come to me takes up most of my free time. When there’s not a global pandemic, I love trying out new restaurants in the metro and taking road trips with my friends.
My first year out of college, I taught middle school in my hometown. This was, to put it mildly, not all that I’d hoped it would be, and I moved back to Jackson in May and accepted a position in the Registrar’s Office at my alma mater, where I work as the receptionist and the enrollment/transcript clerk. I absolutely love it, and I work with eight of the kindest women I know. Living in the metro again has brought me lots of opportunities, especially where my writing is concerned, and to riff off UNC’s chant—I was Wayne County born and Wayne County bred, but when I die, I’ll be Hinds County dead.
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
