Spring 2017
Countenance
Countenance (Vol. 1, Issue 1) is a general feature magazine produced by students in the School of Communication at East Carolina University. The articles were written by students in Dr. Cindy Elmore’s Fall 2016 Feature Writing class. The pages were designed by students in Ms. Barbara Bullington’s Spring 2017 Desktop Publishing class. Most of the photographs were provided by students in ECU’s Photography Guild, which is advised by School of Art and Design assistant professor Angela Wells. Funding for the magazine was provided by the ECU School of Communication, School of Art and Design, and the College of Fine Arts and Communication. Questions or feedback can be addressed to Dr. Elmore at Elmorec@ecu.edu or 252-328-5306. On the Cover: ECU student Amber Bass
Contents: The Early Bird Special: Yoder's Dutch Pantry is the place for breakfast — if you can beat the morning rush. p.
3
Binge Drinking and Social Media: Preventing underage drinking at U.S. colleges has always been a problem, but social media takes it to a new level. p.
6
The Groomed Guider: “Truly” the guide dog serves as Amber Bass’ eyes. It’s Truly’s fans who are the distraction. p.
10
Ready to Adopt?: The Humane Society of Eastern Nor th Carolina is a bustling place, keeping its staff on their toes as animals await their forever homes with the right owners. p.
14
Not Your Average Joe: Joe Cox is best known for being the beloved campus pastor for Covenant ECU, and the students he mentors look up to him as a positive influence. p. New Bern: Discover the "genuine" character of this town by the water. p.
18
22
Higher Education and ADHD: Exams, papers and the additional rigors of college life can be a lot to handle for most students, but ADHD can make it even more of a challenge. p.
2 Countenance April 2017
24
The Early Bird Special by Chandler Harrell
Early risers arrive at Yoder's for eggs, bacon, hash browns, and French toast. Some are parked and waiting outside, ready to be seated as soon as the doors are unlocked.
I
t’s 7:30 a.m. on a Friday, which happens to be Veterans Day, but to have a chance to be one of the first ones seated at Yoder’s Dutch Pantry you need to arrive at least 30 minutes before opening time. Yoder’s Dutch Pantry was opened in 2000 to augment Yoder’s Farm and Garden Supply, which opened a year earlier and has since grown into a community fixture in the Vanceboro, North Carolina, area. The Pantry receives its name from the Dutch Mennonite Church, to which the owner, Henry Yoder, belongs. For the early riser, Yoder’s is the place to be to get your breakfast fix. “We arrived this morning around 6:30, just to make sure we would be one of the first seated,” said Barbara Franks, who says she comes to the restaurant at least twice a week. Customers walk in casually as soon as the doors unlock and are quickly waited on by the staff. Eggs, bacon, hash browns and the famous Yoder’s French toast are soon being served in the dining room, which is near max capacity. “I believe we are licensed for around 46 people, but on busy days we can sit near 50,” said Tim Smith, the restaurant’s general manager. It’s now 8 a.m. and the restaurant April 2017 Countenance 3
is booming. The Farm and Garden Supply, which is connected to the restaurant, is gathering customers as well. The store rivals that of an Ace Hardware with tools, pet supplies and even a small engine repair shop. But unlike an Ace Hardware, there is a certain uniqueness about this store, because a majority of the products are built in Amish country in Pennsylvania. “How much does your garden fixtures run outside?” asks an eager shopper. “They normally run around $10,” said the cashier. “Wow, I did not expect them to be priced that low,” the surprised shopper responds. The prices, however, are not the only surprises going around the shopping center this morning. The unofficially titled “sewing circle” is discussing the recent election and this conservative crowd are delighted to be discussing the new President-elect Donald Trump instead of Democrat Hillary Clinton. “That group is something I wanted in my store since day one, a place for coffee and discussion,” said Yoder. “Some say that spending a day over there is worth more than two years of college education.” 4 Countenance April 2017
It’s 8:30 a.m. and people are still piling in and collecting the restaurant pagers that notify them when a table is free and it is their turn to eat. Even with the hour wait, their spirits are not dampened and they instead spend their time browsing the supplies and furniture in the shopping center to pass the time. One young boy has found a very common way to ignore his growling stomach while at Yoder’s. He’s discovered the “store mascot,” a parrot named Corky. The popular parrot has its own merchandise in the store, including T-shirts and coffee mugs. Owner Henry Yoder rides his scooter up to the boy and tells him to ask Corky if he wants his wing scratched. The boy hesitantly reaches out while Corky lifts his wing to get scratched. “He looks like he needs a quick hair combing, Corky. Go help him out,” said Yoder. Yoder places the parrot on the boy’s shoulder and Corky starts combing the boy’s hair with his beak. “There ya go, Corky,” Yoder responds with a smile. At 8:45 a.m., the kitchen is going as hard as it has all morning. About 10 pieces of thickly cut French toast are being griddled. The process starting that French toast, however, began way before. “We bake enough bread the day before to have enough for French toast for breakfast in the morning. It’s our own somewhat secret process because the aging seems to make our bread soak up all the ingredients that makes the French toast better,” said Smith, the general manager. The bakers in the bakery section of the kitchen are feverishly working, preparing the bread that is to be sold. Angie, one of the bakers, has been pulling her weight in the kitchen since 4 this morning.
9 a.m. and a group of first-time visitors are seated. An intriguing discussion of what to order is being mixed in with even more Donald Trump talk. When the waiter comes they quickly decide on double orders of French toast for everyone. “Homemade butter syrup with that?” asks the waiter. “And that is?” the customer responds. The waiter then graciously described the homemade syrup that is a great complement to the French toast they ordered. The customers agree that they would like some. The Donald Trump talk resumes as the waiter walks away. Back in the “sewing circle” the talk has now changed from politics to a recent Harley Davidson motorcycle documentary. The talk then leads to Henry Ford and his Model T and where Ford Motor Co. is today. “Back in this recent recession Ford was ‘bout the only car manufacturer that didn’t need government help,” said one of the members. The adoration for the founders of Ford and Harley Davidson is evident in each of their voices, continuing to show that the members of this Yoder’s “sewing circle” take a lot of pride in American made products. It’s now 9:45 a.m. Before each guest arrives to put a name down on the list, Tim Smith warns them that the wait is now around two hours. To many of the eager customers, the two hour wait is not that bad, but to some a trip to the nearest IHOP may be best for their hungry stomachs. n
April 2017 Countenance 5
by Kirk Morgan
Preventing underage drinking at colleges has always been an uphill battle, but social media takes it to a whole new level. 6  Countenance April 2017
and Social Media
T
otal Frat Move, an In-
Last fall, an Instagram account posted a
stagram account, has
video of a college student in a dorm putting
one million followers
a Snickers candy bar into a Bud Light before
and identifies itself as
chugging the entire thing. It has 361,174
“the most dangerously
views.
entertaining website
“The problem is that college students see
in the game.” It certainly lives up to the
these videos and want to be in it themselves.
hype. It glorifies drunken college students
They think that sending in these videos make
who are getting hurt while drunk or binge
them some kind of a celebrity,” says Maureen,
drinking.
who works for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism but declined
It is social media accounts like this that
to give her last name. Preventing underage
contribute to the 5,000 people under age
drinking at U.S. colleges has always been an
21 who die as a result of drinking each year,
uphill battle, but social media takes it to a
according to the National Institute on Alco-
whole new level.
hol Abuse and Alcoholism. Scroll through
The media has always shaped what we be-
a college student’s Instagram feed and you
lieve to be the prototypical college culture.
might see anything from a video of a guy
Movies, television and the newfound college
shotgun-chugging a beer with a live fish in
Instagram account all show that you drink to
it, to a belligerently drunken student falling
have fun when you are away at school. Un-
down a flight of stairs and crashing head-
derage college students drink for a variety of
first into a wall.
reasons. College is freedom. Freedom from April 2017 Countenance 7
parents, freedom from principles, not like me so I accepted and acted like it wasn’t the first time,” says McMahon. When college students drink, they often drink heavily. The alcohol institute reports that 90 per-
S o c ia l m e d ia is f e e d in g in t o t h e p r o b le m o f b in g e d r in k in g . In 2 0 1 3 , t h e Total Frat Mov e w e b s it e p o s t e d a n a r t ic le , 'Fou r reasons all beer should be consumed in shotgun form.'
cent of all the alcohol underage youth consume, they do so while binge drinking. “Young people, (younger than 21), don’t watch television and have a glass of wine. They go to a party and drink until the beer is gone, usually until they black out. That is the problem, they drink until they just cannot drink anymore,” says Maureen. Social media is feeding into the problem of binge drinking. In 2013, the Total Frat Move website posted an article titled, “Four reasons all beer should be consumed in shotgun form.” “Reason number one: You get fu***** hammered.” “Shotgun enough beers, and you will get ****-hammered sloppy drunk. It is inevitable, and it is awesome.” Old Row is another college social media account that has over 275,000 followers. Its Ins-
freedom to do whatever a student wants to do. Independence and newfound peer pressure may lead college freshmen to do things they thought they wouldn’t. Mackenzie McMahon, a sophomore at Appalachian State University, says she first tried drinking when she moved into her dorm last year. “My roommate introduced me to some of her friends, and I was offered a beer. I didn’t want them to 8 Countenance April 2017
tagram posted an advertisement in October for the new “Raging Mammoth Sabertooth.” This product has one purpose: to poke a hole in a beer for “the perfect shotgun.” The video craze over shotgun-chugging beers has even led to products that make it easier to binge drink. One customer on the Raging Mammoth website wrote a review of the Sabertooth: “Thank you raging mammoth for not just changing the way I party. . . But for
changing the way I live!” It is safe to say this
memory, coordination and motor skills.
trend is truly changing people’s lives.
Youth who start drinking before age 21 are
Luke Bolka, a senior at ECU, admits he had
almost five times more likely to develop
his first beer prior to college, but says his hab- alcohol dependence or abuse later in life its amped up when he got to school. “I knew than those who begin drinking at or after ECU was a party school. I knew what I was
age 21, according to the Substance Abuse
getting into, but I don’t do it (drink) because
and Mental Health Services Administration.
my friends do. I do it because I want to,” Bolka says.
Ryan Davis, who works for the Alcohol Rehab Guide, known as ARG, says that underage drinking has played a large role in the patients his organization treats. “We deal with people once they realize they need treatment, or a family member refers them. Almost all of them started drinking before age 21,” Davis adds. Health effects are not the only problem for
T
college students. About 97,000 students each year between ages 18 and 24 are victims of he problem is, most college students do not know what they are getting themselves into. Underage drinking leads to lasting health
effects because the brain is still develop-
ing. According to helpguide.org, a website that helps with alcohol dependency,
underage drinking could lead to lasting impairments in brain functions such as
alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape, according to helpguide.org. And binge drinkers are eight times more likely than other college students to miss classes, fall behind in schoolwork, be injured and damage property. Underage drinking is one of society’s biggest health concerns and experts say these social media accounts are adding to the problem. The newfound shotgun for drinking a beer has become a recreational activity for many college students because of college media accounts glorifying binge drinking. n April 2017 Countenance 9
by Jennifer Hines
10  Countenance April 2017
The Groomed Guider A story of a student and her furry friend
W
ith a determined look on her face, Amber Bass takes a deep breath, swallows her
mounting anxiety and pushes open the
door to the fast food restaurant that had twice kicked her out. Amber isn’t your typical fast food consumer. Amber suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic mutation that is causing her to go blind. Retinitis pigmentosa is a rare eye disease where the retina is damaged and causes severe tunnel vision. Because of this condition, she has a four-legged set of eyes that lead her everywhere. Amber met her guide dog, Truly, a black lab with big golden eyes, in June 2014 after going through a special program with Guide Dogs for the Blind. Amber flew out to California for two weeks to meet her new partner and ever since she came back home, the two have been inseparable. “[Truly] is literally an extension of my left arm,” Amber says. “She’s my eyes.” Truly guides Amber around campus without making a noise besides the occasional yawn or sleepy grunt. Her golden eyes stay focused on their route and, almost as if she is psychically connected to Amber, knows exactly which direction to take. But, the moment Amber takes off Truly’s harness, Truly begins to act just like any other dog, running in circles and barking for her toys. Most of all, Truly loves to get pets from anyone who will give them because this is only allowed when her harness is off.
Amber was paired with Truly the summer before she came to college at East Carolina University. Truly helped Amber navigate through orientation and has since learned every shortcut on ECU’s campus. Together, they now reside in Cotten Residence Hall. The familiar jingle of a lead smacking against a harness tells the residents of Cotten’s first floor girl’s hall that Amber and Truly are passing through on their way to class. On a good day, the people on her hall tell her “hello” and go on about their business. Other days, they talk to Truly and try to pet her. Amber finds this a bigger nuisance than people realize. Even Amber’s mother, Cyndi Crandall, notices that the number of people stopping Amber to talk to Truly, even with a giant “Ignore me, I’m working” sign on Truly’s harness, is getting ridiculous. “One time,” says Cyndi, “someone actually said, ‘I know she has a sign on her that says ignore her, but can I pet her?’” Truly often accumulates more attention than Amber would like, especially in high-traffic areas such as the dining hall. When Amber and Truly arrive at the West Ending Dining Hall on Mexican Night, several eyes turn to her and Truly. Amber walks from station to station, peering through the glass. She cannot see what the contents hold, but she uses her phone to zoom in on the name cards of each dish. As she passes each station, another person turns to look at Truly with various expressions of shock, confusion and even adoration. The dining hall soon becomes full of not-so-subtle sideways glances and craning necks. After several minutes of consideration, Amber steps into the burrito line as she tries to April 2017 Countenance 11
read the toppings list from too far away. Pulling out her phone, a group of three young women get in line behind Amber and do a double take when they see Truly. One of the members of the group, who had started to drift away toward the salad bar, is called back by the girl behind Amber. “Macy, I have a secret,” she not so quietly whispers to her friend. Macy comes back and leans in toward her friend. Her friend begins to whisper in a low tone, but mentions of dogs can be heard here and there. Suddenly, Macy pulls her head back and laughs. “Yeah, me neither,” she says. Amber continues to mind her own business. Even though she is aware of the whispers, she is so used to it that it doesn’t even faze her anymore. After Amber receives her burrito, the crowd parts ways to allow her and Truly to get through. One young man, caught in the middle of the shifting crowd, halts in front of Amber. He looks down, pushing his modern horn-rimmed glasses back up his nose, and smiles. “Aaaaw,” he says. Amber quickly moves around him, looking for a table. She navigates her way through throngs of students chatting about their day. As she moves by 12 Countenance April 2017
each table, bodies turn fully around in their seats to watch as Amber and Truly pass. More whispers ensue as Amber sets down her plate on an empty table and makes her way back up to the soda fountain. As she passes a large, round table full of students, a young woman with brown hair turns around and says to her friends, “Man, I really want to pet that dog.” By the time Amber makes it back to her table to begin eating, she has already been assaulted with countless odd looks and been the subject of several whispered conversations. “[It’s] usually worse at the beginning of the semester,” says Amber, who is a junior adapted curriculum special education major. “As the semester goes on, people become slightly less interested.” Amber remembers one time in the dining hall in particular when a young woman barked at Truly. “We walked by and some girl barked at her and that sparked a whole conversation at her table,” Amber says. Moments like those make it hard for Amber to be confident when going out alone with Truly. The anxieties Amber has developed all stem from one negative experience with the management of a Greenville fast food restaurant. On two separate occasions, Amber and her family were told they had to leave because they could not bring a dog to the establishment. The restaurant’s manager refused to speak to them herself because she was afraid of dogs. “The second time it happened, we didn’t even make it through the door,” says Amber. “All of the management and cashiers were yelling at us, telling us we couldn’t have Truly in there. It is so embarrassing to have the entire attention of a restaurant on you all at once and you haven’t done anything wrong.” According to North Carolina statutes, a blind per-
son has the guaranteed right to “be accompanied by a dog guide in all public accommodations and on all transportation,” basically making the actions of the fast food manager illegal. Lisa Pase, an independent living specialist and advocate with the Disability Advocates and Resource Center in Greenville, says that those statutes apply to more than just blind service dog handlers. “People think automatically that a guide dog is for someone who is blind,” says Pase. “A service animal helps someone with disability. An animal could help someone with anxiety or something of that nature. The Americans with Disabilities Act was created in 1990 and until 2011, only dogs were considered service animals. “We call them service animals under the ADA because, in 2011, miniature horses were listed as service animals,” Pase says. Despite Amber’s anxieties about going out in public with Truly, her best friend, Kim Dana, a sophomore sociology major, says that Amber’s personality doesn’t show that anxiety at all. “I think Amber is very strong and when people say something about Truly, she carries herself very well and she stays very composed,” says Kim. At the time, Amber made several phone calls to the restaurant’s corporate headquarters as well as
the ADA hotline, but the issue remains unsolved. Taking matters into her own hands, Amber decided to revisit the infamous restaurant. “I’m ready to fight them on it if they give me a hard time,” says Amber. As Amber gets out of the car, she adjusts Truly’s harness, takes a deep breath, and marches right through the restaurant’s front door like she owns the place. Instead of being met with resistance as she was expecting, she is met with a chorus of “Welcome to Popeye’s.” Even the manager walking down the hall stops to ask Amber how she is doing. Amber places her order, collects her food, and finds a table all without complication. Other than a few sideways glances from some of the customers milling about the dining area, everything is normal. “Well that was anti-climactic,” Amber says, giggling and sliding into a booth. “They must be under new management.” Amber finishes her meal and takes one final walk to refill her cup. Nobody says a single word to her, not even as she exits the building. Amber has a big grin on her face as she walks to the car. “That,” Amber says, “was satisfying.” n
April 2017 Countenance 13
Ready to
Adopt? by Rachel Alligood
H
umane Society of Eastern North Carolina. Please hold,” said the curly haired woman, frantically transferring calls and repeating the same line over and over. “Yes, we are open, please hold,” she repeated, barely managing to mus" ter a wave to the chipper family walking through the door. Moseying in behind the family was East Carolina University senior Kelsey MacWilliams, intent on saving a life and finding a furry new friend. Amy Shalita, the shelter ’s receptionist, had a busy day ahead of her. Friday afternoons are always busy, full of families with small children and high hopes of finding the perfect family pet, students from the nearby university and high school wandering in and out just to look at puppies, volunteers from near and far trying to finish off service hours for traffic violations, and the ever so frequent pet owner coming to reluctantly surrender a dog or cat. 14 Countenance April 2017
One effort that has drastically increased this number is foster programming, which allows volunteers to keep a dog or cat in their care, at their home, for a certain amount of time with the expenses funded by the Humane Society. Potential owners can still meet and adopt these animals while they are in foster care — it just makes more room in the shelter for additional cats and dogs. In 2016, The Humane Society of Eastern North Carolina saved 743 animals, surpassing the total 688 saved in 2015. On this busy day, the walls in the front of the building were collaged with lost dog posters and photos of animals desperately seeking adoption, alongside gushing descriptions of their “super sweet personality.” The front desk was covered in pictures of adoption success stories and recent intakes, perhaps giving hope to those who come in and a slight tinge of guilt to those who leave empty handed. A wooden walkway leads from this structure to another building on the left, and to a series of small dog pens on the right. The building is called the “Cat Palace,” which houses over 30 kittens and adult felines. Full of crates, carpeted towers, wired enclosures and haphazardly placed toys and rugs, the Cat Palace may be a few steps below today’s definition of a palace, but seems a happy temporary home for all these felines. The building reeks of ammonia, litter and artificial tuna, but the staff could not seem happier to help out these rescues. Each enclosure has a name tag along with the cat’s age, sex, adoption story and dietary needs for a potential owner to consider before adoption. “Could I play with Simon?” a young girl asked, seeming to be speaking to the college-aged young woman sticking her fingers through the wire barrier that separated her from the litter of kittens asleep atop a stack of plush cloths. “Miss?” the girl asked again. “Excuse me?” the young woman replied, confused, and turning around to the child. April 2017 Countenance 15
“Simon, the little black one. Could you take him out for me?” the little girl asked, sounding hopeful but nervous. She looked down at the ground then back up, crossing her arms and nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot. “Oh!” The woman laughed, shaking her head. “I don’t work here, I just come here a few times a week to see who has gotten adopted. I like to play with them, too. I hope you get to meet him though!” she said, bending down to the child’s level, glancing around the room to find a volunteer or associate who could open the cage. Many such people from around the area come to the Cat Palace just to look and play. They have their hearts in the right place, but on a busy Friday afternoon there just is not enough time, money or help to get everything done with all of the visitors in the way. Exiting the building on the right stands a series of wire dog pens beyond a wooden picket fence. Each pen contains one or two dogs that anxiously run to the front whenever someone walks by, panting, barking and scratching at the wire for attention. Whether it be a volunteer passing by to toss treats into the enclosures or a young couple coming to meet a new forever friend, any sign of action excites these canines. Among the excitement of the dogs stood Kelsey MacWilliams, sneaking her fingers between the cracks of the wire fence to pet the dogs when volunteers weren’t looking. One dog stood out to a number of people that afternoon: a 12-year-old Shih Tzu-poodle mix the staff had named Ralph. “Two couples and one family have come to look at him today, and they’ve all filled out applications to adopt,” Sistene Burgess, the shelter director, explained to Kelsey. “If you’re interested, you might want to act fast,” she added, gesturing to Ralph’s enclosure. Dragging her feet, Kelsey walked throughout the rest of the shelter, glancing around to see what other dogs caught her eye. It was then that she spotted Sadie, a three-legged mutt of too many breeds to even guess. At 75 pounds, Sadie was just large enough for Kelsey’s liking, but just small enough for Kelsey’s 5-foot-2 stature and cozy little apartment. Sadie was 6 years old and looking for a home, but could not stop shaking whenever she met new people. Kelsey confidently took her out to the larger run with the assistance of 16 Countenance April 2017
Sistene, Kelsey’s eyes aglow with hope for their first interaction. In those first few minutes with Sadie, she realized what a great friendship it could be, and told the nearby staff members she was ready to adopt. While the staff supervised Kelsey and Sadie at play, a rusted beige taxi pulled up into the yard alongside the fence. “Y’all know where I can drop this dog off ?” an older man shouted at a volunteer, gesturing to a melancholy looking dog in the back seat of the taxi, drooping its head out the window and staring at the ground. The volunteers exchanged a few worried looks and scattered in different directions, calling out the
names of several staff members for help. “Miss Sistene!” one volunteer yelled, running toward her. “There. Is. A. Man.” She gasped, catching her breath before continuing. “There’s a man outside. In a taxi. He wants to give us his dog and I don’t know what to do,” she panted, fixing the messy brown ponytail that sat atop her head. “Let me handle it,” Sistene answers. A volunteer coordinator led Kelsey back to the front of the shelter, a clipboard stacked with paperwork in her hands. After exchanging a few “sign here” and “initial here’s”, Kelsey’s application to adopt a pet was complete. “We will call you once we review and approve your application,” Kelsey is told, while a slight grin crept across her face. “You can hope to hear from us soon.” Kelsey took one last glance over her application, gathered her things, and proceeded to the door. On
“We will call you once we review and approve your application,” Kelsey is told, while a slight grin crept across her face. “You can hope to hear from us soon.” her way out, she stopped at a basket of stickers, grabbed one, and read it. “Who Rescued Who?” the sticker read. She slipped the sticker in her purse, smiled with satisfaction, and headed out.
O
ver the next few days, Kelsey, a work ing college student, thought through the idea of owning a dog and ultimately decided that a family would make for a better home for such a pet, no matter how badly her heart was telling her to bring Sadie home as her own. She did, however, return to the Humane Society to adopt a cat, the more responsible choice for her current busy life. Kelsey and the new forever friend she calls Quinn have been getting along great since adoption, and she could not be happier to have saved her pet’s life. n
April 2017 Countenance 17
Not Your Average by Kandice Scarberry
J
oe Cox smiles as he tells a joke about the number of ECU students who are in the library. When he smiles, his blue eyes grow big and
the lines on his face curve up. The lines show years of joy, but also years of pain
that he says were only escaped through his faith in God. Joe is best known for being the beloved campus pastor for Covenant ECU, and the students he mentors look up to him as a positive influence. “Joe is the kind of person you want in your life,” Liz Kaiman, a student leader for Covenant ECU, said. “Everybody should have a person that invests in their life and points them to good things and helps them out. Joe can’t be that for every person, but I think everyone should have a Joe in their life.” Joe said he wasn’t always such a positive person to
"Joe is the kind of person you want in your life." 18 Countenance April 2017
JOE
be around. At 18, he was an alcoholic and thinking about suicide after failing his physical to join the Air Force. “That was probably the worst moment of my life,” Joe said. “Because when the one thing you’ve been looking forward to in life is taken away from you with nothing else to fall back on— friends, girlfriend, family, it’s all gone— it’s so scary and it’s painful.” Joe’s struggles with alcohol, swearing and promiscuity caused problems at home, and his family believed the Air Force would fix Joe’s behavior. Joe, on the other hand, wanted to join the Air Force to get away from the broken home he grew up in. As Joe was growing up in Delanco, New Jersey, he says addiction and violence were always around him. Things got so bad when Joe was 11 that his parents got into a knife fight. “The only thing I remember about that night was mom coming upstairs and scooping my brother and I up and taking us to our grandmother’s for three months,” Joe recalls. After that incident, Joe said his father never drank
"...Joe said his life was completely turned upside down by God."
again, but things weren’t much better because of his dad’s bitterness. “Even though he no longer drank, there was an emptiness, there was a hardness, there was a callousness that we continued to live with,” Joe said. “I pretty much spent my life in fear of my father, being rescued by my mother, and just being pushed and pressed.” Joe said he picked up his father’s drinking habit when he was 16, and it changed his life for the worse. He didn’t drink every day, but when he drank, he drank hard. “I would drink stuff like Jeramiah Weed, 151 Rum,” Joe recalled. “I mean all these different hard things, and if I was going to be sneaky, I would drink a lot of peppermint schnapps.” But one day, Joe said his life was completely turned upside down by God. His parents left him at the bus station to go to Philadelphia to get his last physical before Air Force basic training. He
was at a Military Entrance Processing building the first week of November 1983 and was going through the processing when a doctor pulled him out of line. “I go into this office, and so I’m freaking out,” Joe said. “I’m like, where is this going? And he’s not talking, he’s just writing and scribbling, and he’s got my folder in front of him. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ And he told me I’d failed.” Joe said he failed the physical because he had back acne, something the doctor said would prevent him from carrying a backpack in the heat. The doctor took Joe’s plane ticket. He was sent out with an open-ended bus ticket to go home. The problem was that he couldn’t go home. No one would take him back. At that point, Joe said he had nowhere to go, and he began contemplating suicide. eanwhile, 700 miles away in Lexington, Kentucky, a young girl named Marianne Church began having panic
M
April 2017 Countenance 19
attacks at school. No one could understand these panic attacks until Marianne’s father sat down and told Marianne that she needed to pray for her future husband. “That same week in Philadelphia,” Joe said, “the person Marianne would one day marry was thinking about taking his life.” After Marianne’s family finished praying for Joe, Marianne’s panic attacks stopped, and her life returned to normal. Back in Philadelphia, Joe said he sat on a street corner for an hour contemplating what he was going to do. He finally called his great-grandmother, and she told him to come stay with her, which he did. That Sunday, his great-grandmother invited Joe to church. He went and that began the long road to turning his life around. On Feb. 10, 1984, three months after being rejected from the Air Force, Joe said he gave his life to Christ even though he continued to struggle with alcohol, swearing and women. But then one day he said his words changed. “’I got home that week,” Joe said. “When I woke up in the morning, I went to work. I stopped cussing.” It would take him years to understand why he felt God took that vice away, considering the other bad things Joe was still struggling to overcome. “My words would’ve repelled the people like Pete, Berry and Amal,” Joe said, referring to his important new influences. “Those are the guys that helped me deal with my drinking. Those were the guys that showed me how to be a man and showed me how to be a gentleman. But my words would’ve pushed them away. That’s why God heal[ed] my words first.”
J
oe would spend the next five years of his life working as a computer technician and working on his relationship with God. It wasn’t until a weekend trip to visit a friend at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, that his 20 Countenance April 2017
life would change once again. His friend suggested Joe go into missions work, and the suggestion threw Joe for a loop. After confiding in his mother about the advice, Joe didn’t quite get the answer he was expecting. He said she told him to go to Asbury. Still unsure, that nig ht w hile reading his devotional, he told God he needed an answer before he went to sleep. “I get my Bible out, open up my devotion book, and I go to the proper day because each day is numbered,” Joe recalled.“Now it’s May 1st, and it says here’s your scripture for the day: Matthew 28. It says go and make disciples... And I remember reading the first words: therefore go. I couldn’t get past ‘go.’ It was like it was bold faced highlighted and I couldn’t read the other words. And I heard this intense voice inside: God saying go.” The words sank into Joe’s brain, and the next morning he was making arrangements to go to Asbury, a small, nondenominational, Christian university. When he told his great-grandmother, she began to cry. He later learned at her funeral that she had long prayed for Joe to come to Christ and go into ministry.
Joe Cox, campus pastor for Covenant ECU, uses his past experiences to help current students.
Not everyone was excited about Joe’s decision. Joe said his father was furious. “Oh he was livid,” Joe said. “He couldn’t understand why I was quitting my decent paying job to go to college and study ministry. All he kept saying was that he wasn’t paying for it.” Despite this, Joe found a way to go to Asbury in the fall thanks to his church. While at Asbury, Joe met Marianne Church, the Lexington girl with the panic attacks, and they become friends. Joe eventually fell for her, and they decided to go on a date. “I remember Oct. 5, 1989,” Joe recalled. “At about 9 o’clock at night on the bench behind the arts building on a perfect Kentucky starlight night. I wanted to date her so bad, and I remember just before I went to go kiss her for the first time, I heard God say, ‘If you kiss that girl, she will be the last girl you will ever kiss.’” They continued dating and eventually married. photo by Kandice Scarberry
Joe said it was Marianne’s grandfather and father who showed Joe how to be a Godly husband and dad. Now, as a campus minister at ECU, Joe takes everything he has learned about life through his experiences and uses them to help students. Covenant ECU member Philip Donato said Joe has taken everything he’s learned from life and put it into his preaching. “I’ve gone to Joe for numerous things,” Philip said. “He is just the type of person who has so much good insight on so many different parts of life. He knows how to make every individual person feel like they matter, and, to him, they do.” As Joe, now 51, flipped through photographs of his younger years, he reflected on what makes him connect with college students. God let me keep the tools,” he said. n
April 2017 Countenance 21
New Bern by Henna Schafer
22 Countenance April 2017
N
ew Bern, North Carolina, is home to Tryon Palace, Nicholas Sparks and a history that dates back to the beginning of the United States. It’s a well visited spot, but in a town like New Bern that sees the hustle and bustle of tourists in the summer, its authentic character is often overlooked. Sure, Tryon Palace is rich in history but it is a generous title for a very big house (that actually burned down; the one people visit is a replica) and Nicholas Sparks is a famous author, but the chances of running in to him on the street are slim to none. New Bern is an enticing little city in the summer when people travel from across the nation to drop off their children at sailing camps, pass through on their vacations to the beach, and the time of year when it’s 80 degrees before the sun even rises. But when September hits, it’s easier to find a parking spot in the historic downtown area, the shops are less crowded and no one has to wait more than 20 minutes for a table at Baker’s Kitchen.
In historic downtown, signs attached to the lampposts on the street say “2 hour parking,” but many don’t know that there is actually no one to enforce it or track it, so any local knows they can park downtown for the entire day. In fact, most downtown employees do. When the leaves start to fall, it’s more tolerable to spend an entire day outside without sweating completely through your clothes, and if you venture past the Craven County Courthouse on Broad Street, which most people use an unofficial sign that “downtown” has ended, you’ll find a slew of historic and beautiful homes, as well as a lot of one-way streets that make for a good stroll with little to no traffic. You might hear a “hey!” ring out, but they’re not telling you to get off the lawn; they’re greeting you as people do in North Carolina. No one will be offended that a stranger is ogling at their home; they even open up their homes to strangers twice a year for the Spring Homes and Garden Tour and the Holly and Ivy Holiday Home Tour, both of which evade summer. When the air gets even more brisk and your car windows frost in the morning, it’s worth the time and the gas to take a drive through Trent Woods to see what locals describe as “the balls of chicken wire light in the trees.” It’s not a magical description by any means but it is a magical experience. Around Christmas time, homeowners will hang balls of chicken wire entangled in multicolored lights from their trees that create an effect of suspended balls of light when you drive through the neighborhoods after the sun sets. People say New Bern is a sleepy town by the water, but popping in for a coffee at Sweet Pea’s Café will tell you otherwise. The front counter, doors and walls are covered in posters and fliers of all of the local activities going on, and there is always something. Sometimes it just takes picking the opposite season from everyone else to discover the genuine New Bern. n April 2017 Countenance 23
by Corey Jones
24  Countenance April 2017
Higher education and
“
It never gets easier, that’s for sure.
A
”
black, fine point pen clicks in an arrhythmic manner. A red Nike tennis shoe taps the tiled floor repetitively.
Nu-
merous rearrangements of the textbook, notebook and pencil on the desk occur. The
chair slides back, the chair moves forward. “Hey, can you stop clicking that pen? I really can’t focus,” says James Price, a student sitting beside Chelsea in their class at East Carolina University. Chelsea McPherson apologizes and sets the pen parallel to the mechanical pencil that is already placed on her desk, and looks up at her chemistry professor. Looking back down at her desk, she picks up photos courtesy of Chelsea McPherson
the mechanical pencil and begins to copy what the professor had written on the white board 15 minutes ago. “It is the study of matter, its properties, composition, and….” Drifting back off into a daze, Chelsea involuntarily sets the pencil down and picks up the black pen. Again. *Click, click, click, cliiii, ckk, click* continues through almost the entirety of a 50 minute chemistry lecture. Price rolls his eyes but doesn’t make another comment. April 2017 Countenance 25
Four minutes before class is dismissed, Chelsea After spending four years in and out of the principal’s begins to put her materials in her backpack. She office and being threatened with being kicked out slowly pulls the zipper as she squints her eyes and of school, Chelsea was taken to the doctor by her cringes her teeth in an attempt to be quiet. Four parents. She was 8 and diagnosed with Attention minutes go by and she is the first student out of her Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. seat, then quickly makes her way to the door and turns the handle. oday, Chelsea enters the dining hall, greeted pleasantly by waving hands, smiling faces and lthough this is Chelsea’s third year at ECU, faint giggles. Brooke Wright, Sarah Sullivan school doesn’t appear to get easier for her. and Nancy Molina have a seat saved for her. Chel“I thought my first day of college classes sea sits down, without even thinking twice about was difficult. I started on a Monday, which typically getting lunch. consists of 50-minute classes,” Chelsea says. “Then “Are you not getting lunch again, Chelsea?” Molina I woke up the next morning, went to class, and asks. squirmed through an hour-and 15-minute class. It “You know I do not eat breakfast and I barely eat never gets easier, that’s for sure.” lunch because my pill takes away my appetite,” ChelTwenty-year-old Chelsea McPherson grew up in a sea responds. small town in North Carolina, where she attended a After sitting at the table for about 12 minutes, Montessori elementary school. She never had many talking with her girls, Chelsea pulls her wallet out friends, and says she was always caught in the middle of her backpack and reenters the food portion of the of doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. dining hall. She walks around the dining hall two
A
26 Countenance April 2017
T
times before deciding to get fries and barbeque sauce. “I hate how you really can’t eat until three o’clock every day. I feel like it is bad for you,” Sullivan says. Chelsea rolls her eyes and sits down to enjoy her french fries. The students clean their table and walk out of the dining hall together. Chelsea tells her friends goodbye and starts walking toward the Austin building for her 1 p.m. calculus class. She sits down at a seat in the second row and pulls out her materials for the class: Calc textbook, spiral notebook, mechanical pencil, colorful agenda and a yellow highlighter. Before class starts, Chelsea writes down a few things in her agenda. Lists for every day of this week are in her agenda, and only one thing has been crossed out. The professor arrives and Chelsea sits up straight, grabs her pencil and opens her notebook. The professor hands out a sheet of paper to the class, containing instructions and problems. Chelsea turns to one of her classmates as they begin to work on the sheet together. She grabs the yellow highlighter and highlights key portions, and before putting it back on the desk she holds it in her hand for a while, popping the top off and on, similar to the clicking pen. “It’s hard for me to focus on my own. Even though
I take a pill every day I still need help completing the task at hand. I work better in a group or with a partner,” Chelsea says. “I am also a hands on, visual learner. I do better in calc than chemistry because my calc professor gives us a sheet with the work on it, while my chemistry professor writes it on the board.” Back in calculus class, the two students finish the worksheet, as a smile appears on McPherson’s face. She puts the sheet in a folder, opens up her agenda to this week, and crosses out “Calc in-class worksheet.” Chelsea says that it is always a relief when she completes a task, because staying focused and controlling her hyper tics at the same time is an everyday struggle. “I wake up, take my pill, get ready, move and squirm through all my classes, and lack the ability to capture all the desired notes,” Chelsea says. “Then when I get home,
I try to do my homework, but I never have enough information to complete it because I get distracted in class.”
T
onight Chelsea's agenda sits open on her bedside table, with only two items crossed through. The remaining nine items sit there, uncompleted. n
April 2017 Countenance 27