Meet Our New Intern: Erin Cantrell

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think there are a few more that I can say about this one. Yes, I am standing on a glacier. No, it really isn’t that cold, and I am currently reaching for a granola bar in my fanny pack (the only thing I decided to bring with me).

There’s so much that I could write, but I wouldn’t have the time nor the strength to fit everything I felt was important into one post. Currently, I am a 19-year-old student at the University of Tennessee pursuing a path in Creative Writing with the intention of attending law school. When I travel, the hardest choice I have to make is answering the dreaded question, “Where are you from?” No one else hiking a glacier in Alaska is going to know where Norris, Tennessee is. So, my answer is usually, “A small town about thirty minutes outside of Knoxville!” And if that’s still too broad, “Do you know where they made the atomic bomb? Yeah, I’m from around there.” They usually get that one.

The first memory that I have is of me sitting on our kitchen counter looking at brass pots and pans swinging above me. That has nothing to do with who I am today, but I do find it quite interesting that it the first thing I remember. My first fear was that a T-Rex was going to come get me from my closet. My first dream I remember is that I was flying.

I put such an emphasis on my “firsts” because people like to skip over what goes on in the middle and get right to the ending. But who can fault them? The ending is the best part! The last words I would hear before school every morning were, “Don’t forget the most important rule, have fun.” The last song that I became obsessed with was “Easy Lover” by Phil Collins. And the last thing I do every night before I go to sleep is pray.

I am not the most fashionable person known to man and most of my vocabulary is made up of cliché pop culture references, but still, I smile. I smile because I know now that a T-Rex can’t fit in my closet and that I continue to have dreams that I can fly. I smile because Phil Collins is still the best to ever do it and it is never too late to talk to God. I smile because until now, I was one of the only people to know that I dropped that granola bar right after this photo.

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