Memphis is a city of soul, history and stories. I wanted to take advantage of the rich culture that embodies my home town by learning new lessons and gaining insight from its community. Every week I will interview random people I encounter in Memphis and ask them all the same question, “If you could give me one piece of advice what would it be?” I’m going to post the most interesting, touching, hilarious and profound responses.
Davy Jones, 29 years old
“How old are you? I would say never under estimate where you will be 5 years from now. Whatever you think might happen now, like, just don’t hang on that expectation. I’m not saying that in a bad way because some things are exciting. Like, five years from now I hope I can look back and be like ‘Oh , holy shit I had no idea my life was going to be like this.’ You’ll see though. I have a cool job catering for different music festivals but it’s not what I went to school for. Actually I didn’t go to school.”
Tamaya Dillard, 5 years old
“What is advice? Oh, yeah. Treat everybody in the world the way you would want to be treated. Always be nice! And friendly!”
A few weeks ago I had an assignment in my reporting class to a interview people in Memphis and ask them how they felt about police. Apparently, I enjoyed the assignment so much that I took it upon myself to continue my research last Saturday night at Silky’s downtown. I found the footage on my camera roll the next day and decided to edit the clips together into a short video and post it to my social media for this assignment. I tried to make it go viral by posting it to my Twitter account and Instagram account. I added several relatable hashtags in order to bring people to it who are looking at similar material on Instagram or Twitter. Additionally, I pinned the tweet to the top of my profile so it will be the first thing everyone who goes to my profile sees. I also tagged Chrissy Teigen on Twitter hoping she would ReTweet it because it seemed like something she’d like. I was unsuccessful in getting Chrissy’s attention however, I did get 8 retweets and 37 favorites. I have 506 followers on Twitter so that is more interactions than I usually get. I posted it on Instagram with the same hashtags but only received 70 likes which is less than half the amount of likes I usually get. Overall, I was not successful in making my post go viral.
Tweet
Instagram Post
Wayne Gutch, 67 years old
“Be true to yourself. As you go through life you will encounter a lot of little things that will make you consider compromising who you really are. Relationships, friendships, jobs…make every effort not to do that because at some point later in life you will regret those compromises. Stick with your ideals and your goals. Be true to them. You won’t have much to regret.”
Joe Billups, 52 years old
September 10th
“Get your priorities straight. My friends learned that after they got to college and it was too late. Don’t lose focus, be as studious as possible. I graduated high school in Rochester, NY in 1984. I took a year off before entering the military in September of 1985. The military paid for my education. I enlisted in the marines and attended Campbell University in North Carolina. I got my associates degree in Arts. My family told me not to do combat because it’s dangerous. In the beginning, I worked in the logistics field. I dealt with all kinds of transportation…boats, airplanes, vehicles. Then I switched to combat and I received the bronze star award for doing exceptionally well. I was able to relax. For 25 years I traveled all over the world with the military. My first duty was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. I actually became a celebrity in there. They called me “8-ball” because I was the eighth best table tennis player in the military. Turns out, I was the best player in the Orient. In 1989 I was stationed in Germany. German is my second language, I can also speak Japanese. I moved to Memphis in 1996 to recruit people for the military. I am retired now but I like to stay busy. I work part time for my buddy’s security company. My education opened doors. I could tell you a million stories.”
Cassidy Cockrell 