I grew up reading the Comics section of The Picayune Item in my grandmother’s living room. I didn’t really have the awareness to read much else in the paper, unless it concerned the New Orleans Saints.

I read more of the paper now, but the Saints still catch my eye first. I love all sports, and I love to write. Any job where I have a chance to combine the two is a job that I am excited to have.

I’m from Long Beach, Mississippi. I lived there with my family from 1999 until Katrina hit, and then I went back as soon as the schools reopened and I had a place to stay. While my family recovered and rebuilt, we came to Picayune where my mom grew up with the Maroon Tide and my dad was raised a Blue Devil.

Pearl River County is where both of my parents lived the first half of their lives, and it’s where their parents lived most of their lives, too. It’s been a consistent place in my life for a long time, my “home away from home.” It seems appropriate to me that my first newspaper job is in a place where I have some deep roots.

I’m not reading comics in my grandmother’s living room anymore, but I am fairly close to EconoTax, which she owned for more than 30 years until she passed away. It’s right down the road from the Pregnancy Support Center that she helped open several years ago. I don’t think Mary Fowler believed in taking credit for these things, but I feel good about doing it for her.

There are footprints of hers all over Picayune, and she always wanted me to write as much as possible. Working for the newspaper I used to read while lying upside down on her couch feels like a perfect fit to me.

By Dart Spiers