As many small town residents may know, growing up in a town where everybody knows everybody can present its own unique set of challenges.

My siblings were incredibly well known at my high school. My sister and my brother both received the Gulf Breeze High School Hall of Fame award, an award given to the top 10 students in the school.

My sister and my brother both went to excellent schools. My sister went to Duke, my brother to FSU. Craving that same caliber of success, I felt like I had to follow the same path as them.

Part of that path that I felt destined to follow was joining my school’s student government (SGA). At my school, SGA was not a club, but a class. While I felt like newspaper would be a better fit for me, I ignored my gut and enrolled in SGA, as my siblings did before me.

Immediately, I knew that SGA was not a good fit for me. I could sense that both the environment and the events that SGA did were not suited to my goals and skills. Still, I pressed on, and after my freshman year I decided to enroll in SGA yet again.

My sophomore year, the same feelings I felt intensified, and I felt like the rift between me and my SGA classmates was growing. There was no arguments to blowups, I just could sense that it was not the place for me.

So, I decided to stray against tradition, lean into my gut, and enroll in newspaper my junior year. I am one of those people who feels things deeply and immediately. I can tell if I will mesh well somewhere right off the bat with high accuracy.

I knew that newspaper was a better fit for me the day I stepped foot in the classroom. That instinct was correct. Now, I am in newspaper. I have won multiple state awards. I have the highest position possible, and I am happier than ever.

This was just one way that I have strayed from my siblings’ path. To be honest with you, if I would have followed the same path they did, I wouldn’t have been miserable, and a lot less accomplished.

To all of you reading this who live in a small town, or have a sibling legacy that sometimes feels impossible to live up to, I encourage you to seek your on path, contribute your own verse.