Brittney Townsend Loves Country Life
“We moved here in November of my eighth grade. I was getting bullied at my school in Newton County and my grades were up and down. I wasn’t focused and was always getting in trouble,” Brittney Townsend shared.
Her cousin had just moved to Monticello to go to Jasper County Schools and told Brittney that she would like the schools here.
So, they moved. Her parents, Gena and Joey Townsend kept their jobs in Newton County, her dad at General Mills in Covington and her mom the Clerk of the Magistrate Court, and they packed up up the family and came to Monticello.
The bullying stopped. “I’m a better person than I was in the past,” she shared. “I could change my story when I moved here. Even though I was the new kid, everybody welcomed me, every one made me feel welcome.”
Monticello is home to other family members. Though her older brother, Donovan Pierce, whom she misses terribly, is away at college, she has several cousins and aunts and uncles who call Jasper County home. She loves being near family and especially loves 4-wheeling with her cousin Cole on his family’s land.
“They have a good deal of land,” Brittney said, allowing them plenty of space for 4-wheeling and riding dirt bikes, activities that she loves. In fact, most of her “shelter at home” time she has spent outside doing yard work and hanging out at the farm spending time with family.
A football cheerleader for four years, she became Captain of her cheer squad this year. She loves everything about it and she has been cheering since she was three years old. Being a cheerleader at pep rallies offers Brittney many of her fondest high school memories.
“I love being in the middle of the gym, my girls who are like a bunch of sisters standing next to me, making everybody scream and making everybody happy,” she shared.
Homecoming and prom are two other favorite memories. “They stick with you,” she told me. She is hopeful the Class of 2020 will still have their senior prom. Like many of her friends, she already has her dress. She accepts that maybe there will be no prom or that it might be several months before it can be scheduled, telling me that “whatever works for everybody” is what needs to happen.
A favorite class is English. “I love and have a passion for English. I love to write and read,” she said, often using her phone or scraps of paper to write down her thoughts. She feels lucky to have had Ms. Lianna Nix as her English teacher. Having her first in the ninth grade, Brittney shared that “Ms. Nix is one of the best teachers ever. She helped me, she pushed me. I am more than I thought I was.”
There is also Mrs. Amy Scroggs. “I love Mrs. Scroggs. She is the Mama Bear of the school (a feeling shared by others I have talked to as well). I can talk to her about anything,” she told me. And, guitar class. “I love my guitar class. Mr. Savage’s class is the reason I picked up guitar,” Brittney said.
“I miss school,” Brittney admitted. “I never thought I’d say that.” Participating in dual enrollment this year and piled high with homework, she would leave school each day at 11 a.m. for college classes. She has already finished one of her online classes for the year and she’s glad for the experience of college and feels ready for more.
Brittney wants to be an x-ray technician. She takes online classes through GA Perimeter College and hopes to transfer to Athens Technical for hands on training. She wants to live at home until she finishes school so that she is financially and emotionally okay before she leaves.
Her career choice has personal reasons. Born with a cyst-like tumor in her brain that can give her migraines, she has spent more than her share of time in hospitals getting x-rays and CT scans. Caught when she was only six years old, her cyst is near the portion of her brain that could affect her memory and speech.
She’s particularly interested in working with children in the hospital. “I was scared,” she said of her many trips to the hospital as a child. “I’m great working with kids,” she told me, so she wants to make other children’s experiences in hospitals less scary. Her own experience requires check ups every two years. She’s been fine and expects she will continue to be.
Her best friend is her boyfriend, Bryce Seabolt, whom she met in high school. Graduating two years ago, Bryce also works at General Mills with Brittney’s dad. “They get along great,” she said of Bryce and her parents, sharing that they often spend time at each other’s home with each others’ parents. Bryce, who is interested in becoming a mechanic, wants Brittney to finish college first, then they might make a move to the mountains.
She chooses country over city living any day of the week. She loves small town living where everybody knows each other and she relishes her memories of going to her hometown Dairy Queen and the Waffle House in Covington for late night food after football games and other events.
Turning 18 in February has provided Brittney with a new sense of responsibility. She is thrilled to be able to play the lottery and to be able to vote. “I’m excited for the first time to vote. In my family, voting is big,” she said. Brittney admitted that like many families, her family does not talk politics at family reunions, knowing and respecting that though they are all family, they do not all vote alike.
Meanwhile, until things get back to whatever the new normal looks like and until Brittney finishes her schooling to be an x-ray technician, she can be found doing her favorite things: 4-wheeling, fishing, enjoying Sunday family breakfasts eating grits, bacon and homemade biscuits and gravy with her Nana and hanging out around bonfires. After all, she declared, “Who doesn’t love s’mores?”
