August 29, 2017
By KEITH RYAN CARTWRIGHT
Rutherford County Schools
Katherine Buchanan was disappointed in herself after she remained “quiet for the whole year” she participated in a teen-led nonprofit.
Buchanan didn’t let that stop her from participating in a month-long governor’s school at East Tennessee State University.
In fact, the Eagleville School senior made it a goal of hers to speak up and actively participate.
“I brought myself out more,” she recalled, “and then I was able to make a lot of friends in a fraction of the time.”
It was the combination of those two experiences that led Buchanan to read JD Vance’s critically acclaimed bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” as part of the summer reading program.
Vance, who grew up in a poor Appalachian town before joining the Marines and later graduating from Yale Law School, wrote what he has described as a “poignant account” of his own upbringing coupled with a “broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.”
“As I read the book, I could picture the people there,” said Buchanan, who was among the eight Middle Tennessee State University summer reading program essay winners.
Open to all of the rising seniors in Rutherford County, 30 of the students who read “Hillbilly Elegy” wrote essays for an opportunity to meet Vance, who was in Murfreesboro this past weekend to speak at MTSU’s annual convocation.
Other essay winners included Jake Duke (Eagleville), Sam Sweeney and Charley Crockett (Smyrna), Brinley Vinson and Mary Grace Mancuso (Blackman), Ledya Alemu (Lavergne) and Ethan Harper (Riverdale).
“It’s a good feeling,” Harper said, of having his essay selected. “I never entered a writing competition of any sorts … so it’s definitely a new feeling.”
Duke said he was honored to be chosen and that it felt good knowing his work was something to be proud of.
Like the others, Buchanan said she was excited to meet Vance.
She selected “Hillbilly Elegy” because it’s current.
In past years, she’s read the Ray Bradbury classic “Fahrenheit 451.” Bradbury, who passed away in 2012, at 91, wrote “Fahrenheit 451” in 1953 almost 50 years before this year’s graduating class of 2018 was even born.
Instead, “Hillbilly Elegy” was released in June 2016.
“I know it’s true, so it has more power for me,” said Buchanan, whose essay compared her own experience in East Tennessee to the experiences Vance shared in his heralded memoir.
“I wrote about how I had to socially adapt to different circumstances.
Buchanan said it was merely a coincidence she had just gone to East Tennessee, but knew it was important to personalize her essay.
That’s how Harper approached his essay too.
Harper’s family relocated to Middle Tennessee from West Tennessee. However, previous generations had lived in East Tennessee.
“There are a lot of stories that have been carried down from those family members and there were a lot of similarities,” added Harper, who wrote about his own family breaking apart, losing a home, the addition of a stepfather and relocating to a larger city.
Harper said the win gives him confidence to enter future writing, while Buchanan plans to pursue a teaching career and is “definitely interested” in writing.