Stay 731: Becoming Strong

Strong is a word I used to hate. What does strong mean? What is strength? I feel like Pontius Pilate as I ask these kinds of questions. When I graduated from Union University a semester early, summa cum laude, I was called strong because I had achieved something. When I crawled out into the barren wasteland called the economy, I was called strong because even though I contemplated suicide, I kept trying to live.

Stay 731: Seasons

There is nothing beautiful about a neighborhood razed and left for kudzu and vines to swallow trees whole, while grass begins forming veins in the cracks of the abandoned streets. There is nothing beautiful about a lot tended only enough to keep back tall grasses. So when I say I love the patch of abandoned land called Westwood Gardens, I get that it’s kind of weird.

EssaysCourtney SearcyMarch 7, 2016Jackson TN, Tennessee, Stay731, #stay731, Courtney Searcy, Katie Howerton, Westwood Gardens, beauty, light, Midtown Jackson, shadows, trees, nature, home, 45 Bypass, seasons, community, place, friendship, friends, family, pain, mourning, loss, college, hurt, brokenness, restoration, Women's History Month