As graduation quickly approaches, I find myself, as many Mississippi graduates do, faced with the decision to remain in the state or look elsewhere for home.
My internal debate on whether to stay in the Magnolia State is not one of job opportunity, potential revenue or standard of living. Rather, it is a weighing of wants and needs.
Do I want to stay in Mississippi? Do I want to leave the state? Do I need to stay? Do I need to go? And even, does Mississippi want or need me?
I am a Mississippian through and through. I was raised in Hattiesburg, I attended Mississippi State University and am soon to graduate from Ole Miss Law. I have been blessed to have lived in and seen the state from top to bottom. There will always be a heartstring that keeps me tethered to Mississippi no matter how far away from it I am.
But do I want to live somewhere else while I’m young?
I have, for a long time, planned on packing up and moving somewhere for a few years after graduation. See the world, see what it’s like to live in a “big city,” etc., but come back to Mississippi once I’ve reached that elusive “settled” stage of my life. I want to grow old in the Mississippi heat and see my children and grandchildren grow up here like Delta cotton. Now that I am at the trigger-point, however, I am wrestling with leaving my state.
Am I leaving her when she might need me the most? If I leave, will too much change in the state in with myself that I may never come back?
I feel as if Mississippi is facing political precipice. (Or perhaps I am just now truly coming to terms with our politics.) It seems as if recently there has been a surge of seemingly backwoods politicians and political agendas trying to creep into mainstream politics in Mississippi. This drive not only has potential to drag Mississippi further down in statistics that we are already at the bottom of the list for and further taint our reputation, but it is driving away our youth.
Young, progressive intellectuals with roots in Mississippi find themselves driven away by the very state that needs them the most. Whether it realizes it or not, Mississippi cannot survive without our generation sticking it out and making a difference.
It may seem that the current state of Mississippi’s ideology does not match up with our generation’s, but how can that change if we all leave? If we leave, won’t the backwoods thinking take over in our absence?
We want Mississippi to reach it’s full potential. We want to the nation and the world to see Mississippi for how great it could be. But how can we expect these achievements if there is a mass exodus of the educated, progressive and passionate?
There is no better time than now for our generation to take the reigns of Mississippi’s future and direct her in the path of equality, opportunity and prosperity that she should have been on long ago.
Anna Rush is a third-year law student from Hattiesburg. She graduated from Mississippi State in 2011.
