Blooming, Not Buried

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I was never coming back to the coast. I swore I’d shoot straight from college to a corporate career. No dice. I moved back three years ago to a small town that sprawls an hour east of New Orleans.

A friend counseled me to ‘bloom where I was planted.’ I snapped, “I’m not planted so much as buried.”

Eventually I reasoned that I could be paralyzed by failure or propelled by it. Easier said than done, but I joined the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Hancock County program and later worked for Hancock Resource Center, a nonprofit that arose from their initiative to address shelter needs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

It’s impossible to be part of the Chamber and not champion the small businesses who are at its core. #hancockmyhome was coined by the Chamber’s marketing team and highlights the coast lifestyle that draws so many visitors to these vibrant little towns.

I supported the #hancockmyhome campaign through managing the social media of a Bay St. Louis based company called Kane Construction. Our approach was to show that it’s about more than designing or renovating a property - it’s expressing to natives and newcomers alike the value of laying a foundation and building a life in Hancock County.

I was honored to be awarded a Hancock Chamber Instagrammy on June 17th, 2021, in the Wild Card category, for my role in celebrating the community I never planned to be part of.

Life has a wicked sense of humor.

Lesson learned: blooming, not buried.