LeAnna Young

Graphic Designer, Photographer, Journalist, Adventurer
Mary Lou & Snooky A 50th aniversary photo frame of their childrem and grand children sits on the mantle of Mary Lou and Snooky Williams home. PHOTO CREDIT- LeAnna Young By today’s standard,  percent of marriages end in divorce. 

 But according to Mary Lou & Snooky Williams of Water Valley, Miss., marriage is something that isn’t made in “la la land.” 

  “Marriage takes work,” says Mary Lou. 

 Mary Lou met Snooky at her roommate’s wedding. That she says, “I didn’t want to go to.”

“I was in a nice rut. I was teaching Spanish and I had lots of friends. It was a nice rut. But my college roommate wanted me to be in the wedding.. and I really didn’t want to. You know what I mean? That would mean I would have to be around laughing, happy couples. And I was a widow. That was a hard thing for me,” says Mary Lou. 
 “But Mother said I had to go, so I went. And I fell smack in love,” says Mary Lou.

 “She had a nice figure,” says Snooky. 

 With Mary Lou being a full time Spanish teacher in west Texas and Snooky living in Water Valley, MS, distance kept them apart. After 30 days total of seeing each other over the course of a year, they married.
 “We married in ‘58. And I’m sorry if I’m slow at answering, I’m having to go back over half a century to remember. Fifty-five years.”

 “There is nothing I don’t like about him,” says Mary Lou. 

 “There is nothing much I don’t like about her,” says Snooky.

 “Except he is always right…and he thinks everything is going to be alright. I’m the worry wart. When danger approaches, I want to cross that bridge before we get to it,” says Mary Lou

.  “Fifty-five years of marriage gives you tremendous happiness, and how to enjoy each moment. Not just each day. Like everyday I see him, I’m so glad, I know that’s stupid but..,” says Mary Lou. 

 “Love like this doesn’t even seem real to me. It seems like a fairy tale that only older lovers can have. Out generation seems so twisted and selfish that this love is unattainable. I pray one day to be like Mary Lou and Snooky,” says Bekka Rich, a senior Communicative Disorders major. When asked about generation y and the rapid growth of marriage and pregnancy, Mary Lou was concerned. 
 “I worry. I worry because I hear people say ‘well if it doesn’t workout, I’ll just get a divorce. That was not an option when I married. We made a vow before God and our friends. You have to work at a marriage. I act like we are just sitting here in La La Land and everything is wonderful, but you have to work,” says Mary Lou. 
 Snooky, on the other hand, is “the funnier of the two” says Mary Lou.
 
“If you ask him about me, he’ll say I was a mud wrestler and I smacked mud in his face and asked him to marry me.”
 
“You don’t believe me?” says Snooky.

Mary Lou & Snooky

A 50th aniversary photo frame of their childrem and grand children sits on the mantle of Mary Lou and Snooky Williams home. PHOTO CREDIT- LeAnna Young

By today’s standard,  percent of marriages end in divorce. 



But according to Mary Lou & Snooky Williams of Water Valley, Miss., marriage is something that isn’t made in “la la land.” 

 

“Marriage takes work,” says Mary Lou. 



Mary Lou met Snooky at her roommate’s wedding. That she says, “I didn’t want to go to.”

“I was in a nice rut. I was teaching Spanish and I had lots of friends. It was a nice rut. But my college roommate wanted me to be in the wedding.. and I really didn’t want to. You know what I mean? That would mean I would have to be around laughing, happy couples. And I was a widow. That was a hard thing for me,” says Mary Lou. 


“But Mother said I had to go, so I went. And I fell smack in love,” says Mary Lou.



“She had a nice figure,” says Snooky. 



With Mary Lou being a full time Spanish teacher in west Texas and Snooky living in Water Valley, MS, distance kept them apart. After 30 days total of seeing each other over the course of a year, they married.


“We married in ‘58. And I’m sorry if I’m slow at answering, I’m having to go back over half a century to remember. Fifty-five years.”



“There is nothing I don’t like about him,” says Mary Lou. 



“There is nothing much I don’t like about her,” says Snooky.



“Except he is always right…and he thinks everything is going to be alright. I’m the worry wart. When danger approaches, I want to cross that bridge before we get to it,” says Mary Lou

. 

“Fifty-five years of marriage gives you tremendous happiness, and how to enjoy each moment. Not just each day. Like everyday I see him, I’m so glad, I know that’s stupid but..,” says Mary Lou. 



“Love like this doesn’t even seem real to me. It seems like a fairy tale that only older lovers can have. Out generation seems so twisted and selfish that this love is unattainable. I pray one day to be like Mary Lou and Snooky,” says Bekka Rich, a senior Communicative Disorders major.

When asked about generation y and the rapid growth of marriage and pregnancy, Mary Lou was concerned. 


“I worry. I worry because I hear people say ‘well if it doesn’t workout, I’ll just get a divorce. That was not an option when I married. We made a vow before God and our friends. You have to work at a marriage. I act like we are just sitting here in La La Land and everything is wonderful, but you have to work,” says Mary Lou. 


Snooky, on the other hand, is “the funnier of the two” says Mary Lou.



“If you ask him about me, he’ll say I was a mud wrestler and I smacked mud in his face and asked him to marry me.”



“You don’t believe me?” says Snooky.

What if I told you that in the next 10 years, there would be a guaranteed 1.4 million jobs available? But what if I told you only about 400,000 qualified for those jobs? That is shortage of one million people. One million people who could have a job, yet lack the skills to perform that job successfully.But what is that job? Coding. Coders are needed from everything involving website design, app functionality, all the way down to basic social media.Coders are the master minds behind most of the technology we use everyday. Coding is the process of streaming this almost foreign language together to program the computer what to do. For example, if you wanted the computer to display the text“Hello, I am 24 years old and my zipcode is 90064”the code would read“cout « “Hello, I am ” « age « ” years old and my zipcode is ” « zipcode;Strange and foreign.After 2008, jobs started consolidating. Graphic designers are no longer allowed to just be completely focused on InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. They need to be able to read and write CSS, Java, HTML, and other multiple layers of codes.Coder are almost the magicians of the future. You don’t just have to be the scary program geek who sits in the basement of large corporations. These coders are reinventing the world. Men, women, kids, teens, adults, seniors. Whoever! Coding is only limited by the amount of imagination. The Department of Labor Statistics breaks down the job market for IT specialists and coders into literally every job market imaginable.

What if I told you that in the next 10 years, there would be a guaranteed 1.4 million jobs available? But what if I told you only about 400,000 qualified for those jobs? That is shortage of one million people. One million people who could have a job, yet lack the skills to perform that job successfully.

But what is that job? Coding. Coders are needed from everything involving website design, app functionality, all the way down to basic social media.

Coders are the master minds behind most of the technology we use everyday. Coding is the process of streaming this almost foreign language together to program the computer what to do. For example, if you wanted the computer to display the text

“Hello, I am 24 years old and my zipcode is 90064”

the code would read

“cout « “Hello, I am ” « age « ” years old and my zipcode is ” « zipcode;


Strange and foreign.

After 2008, jobs started consolidating. Graphic designers are no longer allowed to just be completely focused on InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. They need to be able to read and write CSS, Java, HTML, and other multiple layers of codes.

Coder are almost the magicians of the future. You don’t just have to be the scary program geek who sits in the basement of large corporations. These coders are reinventing the world. Men, women, kids, teens, adults, seniors. Whoever! Coding is only limited by the amount of imagination.

The Department of Labor Statistics breaks down the job market for IT specialists and coders into literally every job market imaginable.

By LeAnna Young

Yokna Bottom farms is an all natural farm outside of Oxford, Miss. I based my photo essay on the “farm to plate” concept. “Farm to plate” is centralized around following the produce from the ground, where it is harvested to market where it is sold, and to the plate where it is consumed. 

Named after Faulkner’s famed fictional county, Yoknapatawpha, where most of his legendary stories were set, Yokna Bottom Farms is very much alive. 

Yokna prides itself on being an evolving exercise in organic living and sustainable agriculture.

One of the their most prized possessions is their community supported agriculture, or CSAs. A CSA is an organizational model for small farms common in the slow food movements that provides small local farmers, usually organic, a steady income while allowing the farmers to share the risks and rewards of small-scale food production.

At Yokna Bottom Farms, food-share for the 2012 growing season (May-October) is a portion of all food produced during the season. A food-share does not represent a share of ownership or commitment to the farm aside from your initial payment. Food-shares are sold on a first pay, first to receive share basis. 

Myrlie Evers-Williams strongly addresses the audience of her struggles in life. She teaches the observers how she pulls from the negative times in her life and turns them into lessons to learn from. She really taught me in a blunt manner that life isn’t about whining and complaining. It’s about growing and learning and taking things from out past and turn them into tremendous advantages to situations that may come later in life. 

Media Storm: 2012 Presidential Debate

http://photos.denverpost.com/2012/10/03/photos-2012-presidential-debate-at-university-of-denver/#6

Journalist man their stations as the coverage for the first of three 2012 Presidential debates begins. Stations were constructed well in advance at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado on October 3, 2012. PHOTO CREDIT:Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

http://photos.denverpost.com/2012/10/03/photos-prepping-for-the-debate/#31

Journalists prepare for the start of the debates in the Media Filing Center at the first 2012 Presidential Debate at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado on October 3, 2012. PHOTO CREDIT: Helen H. RIchardson, The Denver Post

http://photos.denverpost.com/2012/10/03/photos-prepping-for-the-debate/#50

Media risers are set up outside the Ritchie Center at the first 2012 Presidential Debate at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado on October 3, 2012.  Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post

Bill Ross speaks with Mark Dolan and Imani Cheers after Wednesday’s lecture entitled “Minority Women in the Media” at The Overby Center.  

Bill Ross speaks with Mark Dolan and Imani Cheers after Wednesday’s lecture entitled “Minority Women in the Media” at The Overby Center.  

Panelist discusses the history of minority women on Wednesday during the “Minority Women in the Media” lecture. 

Panelist discusses the history of minority women on Wednesday during the “Minority Women in the Media” lecture. 

Wednesday’s discussion panel prepare for their lecture entitled “Minority Women in the Media” at The Overby Center of Southern Journalism and Politics. 

Wednesday’s discussion panel prepare for their lecture entitled “Minority Women in the Media” at The Overby Center of Southern Journalism and Politics.