Allow me to touch on a cliché subject here: AI. You may love or hate its array of possibilities. I lean toward the anti-AI camp but recognize one of its particularly useful (and less controversial) applications: our new, advanced search…
A decade before I was born, my Atlanta-based beach-loving mother spent a long summer at Grayton Beach with a friend. “We were so tan,” she told me on the phone, laughing. She and her friend woke up to walk on…
It’s funny how reliably we humans gain animal emblems. One might say spirit animals or just those animals that seem to stick around in our brains. Case in point: Bats are my thing. When I was about 10 years old…
There’s a special feeling that comes from living in, or even driving through, a truly artistic community. Every building catches your eye. Every door beckons. Fulfilled, purposeful, unique lives are surely being lived inside every window. I feel assured in…
I’m an avid traveler, which comes with risks—illness being one of them. I’ve come down with COVID-19 four times, usually due to a plane full of coughers or a stagnant theme park queue. My first brush with the virus, though,…
Taking in the fall weather the last few months and celebrating the holidays has got me feeling nostalgic for one of the hardest seasons of my life. It was fall 2021 when I first applied for a job at Emerald…
Something about meeting a fellow Emerald Coast local automatically engenders kindred spirits. Maybe you’re at a coffee shop near the coast, and you get to chatting with the barista. They ask where you’re from, and to their surprise, you’re a…
How do you define home? Is it where you live, where you’re from, or where you wish you were? For me, home has always been the beach, even while living in other states. I was raised on Emerald Coast landscapes,…
At 33, I feel possibly too young to be contemplating the good old days. Still, I sometimes find myself and friends half-jokingly adding “back in my day” sentiments to our conversations. Already, my 30s have felt like a reflective decade.…
While studying creative writing at Columbus State University, I took a class in my senior year that led me to realize art is as repetitive as the history it is defined by. The course was an intensive review of…
