Pearlington Trip-Newspaper style

Barren land, wind ravaged homes, washed out dirt roads, sulfur water and swarms of gnats that attack every bit of showing skin; sounds like the description of a third world country. But this is not a third world country, a group of 18 (16 college students and 2 adult leaders) found out. This place is Pearlington, Mississippi.
“I had no idea there was a place like in American” said Stella Sang, an English as a second language student from Korea. Pearlington is located in Hancock County right along the coast and is one of the poorest counties in Mississippi with 18.7% of families below the poverty line. On August 29,2005 the eye of Hurricane Katrina made direct contract with Pearlington leaving the town devastated. It has been nearly three years since that devastation and the event has faded from public consciousness. Many people have assumed that the after effects of Katrina have been fixed but as the Carson Newman bus rolled thru the town littered with bright pink M.E.M.A. (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) it was apparent it takes longer than three years to repair what it seems like a forgotten community.
The first thought in most of the members’ minds after a long twelve hour bus trip was what I have gotten myself into. As soon as those pesky gnats started biting, thoughts about how they were going to make it thru the week began to surface. Upon arrival at the job sites, these thoughts disappeared. It became more about working to improve the lives of those of Pearlington. Work they did and every day at 11:30 stopped for the best free meal around. Missionary Baptist Church provided some the best southern food around for the volunteers. Different dialects echoed thru the small one room church with volunteers coming from all around the country ranging from Pennsylvania to Wyoming. The minster and his wife made sure to say thank you, even if the food was enough.

There seemed to be someone saying thanks every time one turned the corner. Rather it is Josephine whose house one part of the group put siding on or Larry Randall whose porch the other group completed or the Missouri high school students volunteering who needed bug spray there were plenty of thank-yous and bless yous to go around. Along the way, a lesson in perseverance was learned. If the spirit of the community could survive then surely so could the S.P.O.T.S. group. If Pearlington had hope so could anybody.

"What I found amazing was how every time a citizen of Pearlington told me, 'Thank You," I always felt compelled to say, "No, thank YOU," back to them. In a lot of ways I felt like the impact left on me by the people and the situation down there outweighed the impact of my service done for their community” said junior, Heath Trentham. In the end, a thank-you should be offered to the community of Pearlington and what they taught about hope.

M-I-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I

Well I am off to a mission trip at 6:45 tomorrow morning! I will be back in a week!
I might use some more exclamation points!!!!

If you want to follow me- I will be twittering and there is a sidebar on here to that..

Coaching myself with the help of Jack Daniels

I was a walk on to both Cross Country and Track teams here at Carson Newman and I was just so excited to run on a college team. I could not wait to be part in a team that traveled all over and compete. I could not wait to bring my running to the next level. Cross Country lived up to all my expectation and I have managed to drop about a minute off my high school cross country times. I even raced three miles in high school on flat course where as now I race 5ks over hill and dale.

I can't say the same for track. My PR in high school was a 2:26 and I consist raced 2:30s for 800 meters. I had different Coaches every year for track and did low mileage. Speed work was good but not at the collegiate level.

I have not raced faster than a 2:33 in College. The work-outs were lacking, I do not think I ran repeats over 400 meters last year. One of my Coach's favorite workout was to have me run the turns. I was a middle distance runner doing work-outs that never totaled over a mile.

After my freshman year, I asked to move up in distance. This asking only meant that I raced more events. I race up to 4 events including 4x400 meters. I have only raced the 1500 meters once. Then again, our Coach only took us to three meets. I ended up at tears at the end of last year.

I went to the Coach and asked him basically what I needed to do. He did not know but he finally agreed with me that I needed to move up to the 1500m, telling me that I had gotten too slow for the 800 meter. I also voiced my concerns for the lack of the indoor and outdoor season. He promised me more meets.

This year, Coach has basically handed the program over to the G.A. and he is focusing all his attention on his football players. The G.A. does a good job but she has no idea how to coach distance but at least she came to me for help. I have put Jack Daniel's training guide to good use, dog earring, highlighting and carrying it with me at all time. It might be more worn then my bible. I also have most the distance squad on it too. They come to me for work-outs. I am glad the G.A. has allowed me to do this.

I have been training hard and I was ready to race this indoor season. We had four on the schedule, we raced one. There were several different excuses for why the others were canceled but it seems like the head coach just did not try hard enough.

Recently, I have become frustrated with having to do this by myself. I have my teammates who have supported me so well. I don't have someone yelling splits out for me. If a work-out is not working out for me, I don't have someone telling me to tough it out. I don't have that cheerleader. I don't have that second opinion.

I don't regret coming to Carson Newman, it has been a wonderful college. I do not regret running on a team full of great people. I would never trade the memories I have with my teammates. I do regret wasting two years of eligibility in track.

If I know now what I knew then, I would have started coaching myself a long time ago.