What are your Hobbies?
Modeling, Acting, Ballroom Dancing, and Swim Team
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What makes you special and unique?
Several things make me special and unique, but the most important thing that makes me who I am is the fact that I am extremely goal driven. I am always setting new goals for myself and updating my list of things I want to accomplish. There isn't a better feeling than mastering something that I didn't think I could do.
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What is the best advice you have ever received?
"It's better to be talked about, than not talked about at all." In other words, just be yourself. Not everyone is going to like you in high school. The biggest problem for high school kids is peer pressure to conform to the group. If you just stay true to yourself and who you are, than it will not matter who talks about you, or what is said. This advice sounds simple, but it is hard to put in practice because underneath you have to have the self-confidence to know who you are and what you stand for. Many high school kids have yet to develop confidence in themselves and they let themselves be manipulated into doing things that violate their own value system.
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Name one thing you cannot live without.
I could not live without a challenge. Life would be too boring! The thrill is taking on a challenge -- whether or not you win is not the important issue. The reward comes from knowing that at the end of the day you put everything you had into meeting the challenge. If you gave everything you had and lost, then you know you may have lost the battle, but you will win the war.
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What's the most valuable lesson you've ever learned?
Life is not about "you," it's about helping others. In a pageant setting, this may sound insincere; however, I believe that title holders do much to help others. So in the long run, it's not about my happiness, but about how many people I have made happy that counts.
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Who is your most valued role model and why?
As I complete my high school requirements, I have thought about the teachers that have impacted my life and Mr. Freeman seemed to have the biggest effect on me. Unlike of lot of my other teachers, Mr. Freeman never talked down to us. Instead, he treated us more as partners in the learning process. I will always remember his patience in explaining complex topics. I also liked the way he was able to lead a discussion with everyone having a say, yet bring everyone to a final point of the lesson. He would never yell at us and put kids down, rather he would use his sense of humor and irony to steer the class into better behavior.
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What was your most unexpected moment?
Earlier this year I was having pain in my lower abdomen. A few weeks later I began to have a shooting pains in my lower abdomen and my parents rushed me to the hospital. After an extended period of excruciating pain, they finally admitted me to the hospital and diagnosed appendicitis. I went into surgery that same day, but now I am feeling great and I am back on track again.
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What is your workout routine?
I wake up at 5:30 AM three times a week and go to the gym before school. On Mondays, I focus on my upper body and cardiovascular exercises. On Wednesdays, I target the lower body and again do cardiovascular exercises. On Fridays, I do a core workout and swim laps.
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What has been your biggest accomplishment to date?
Graduating from high school in three years. To accomplish this I took summer school classes and extra classes during the regular semesters so I could graduate in three years instead of the usual four. I matriculated to the University of Mississippi for the fall of 2007. I also plan to attend summer school this year at Ole Miss, and I hope to earn my bachelors degree before I reach 21.
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What is the best compliment you have ever received?
The best compliment I received was actually an indirect compliment. I was working as an assistant for a Memphis photographer, James Buchanan, when he said to me "You must have great parents given how they raised you so well."
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What is your secret wish?
My secret wish is to win a triathlon. I swam and ran through grade school, so I think I have that part down. Although I never exactly learned how to ride a bike competitively. I guess that should be my next step in reaching my far-fetched goal of becoming a triathlon winner.
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What was your most embarrassing moment?
I was visiting an old friend who had moved to Denver, CO and we were singing the Happy Birthday song. I was really getting in to it when I realized that everyone was slowing down and looking at me! Oh well, I may not be a great singer, but at least I am an enthusiastic singer.
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What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
My biggest guilty pleasure is going out to the movies on a weekday evening with my friends. It is great fun laughing with my friends, eating popcorn, and watching the movie. But on the other hand, I know that I need to be in bed catching up on my rest and being better prepared for tomorrow's hectic day.
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What is your favorite movie and why?
I love the movie Ice Age because of all the witty dialogue. It always makes me laugh no matter how many times I have seen it.
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What do you like to do for fun... relaxation... recreation?
For fun I enjoy one-on-one repartee. It's always a challenge to stay on your toes, yet it's not in a win or lose situation, just a lot of fun.

For relaxation I enjoy listening to music while I get caught up in a new novel.

For recreation I like to swim whenever possible. I swam throughout grade school and high school. It's my best stress reliever and works great whenever I have had a bad day.
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What would be your dream vacation or destination?
This is something I have thought about since I was twelve, and my parents get really grumpy when I bring it up. So now I'm going to share it with you. If I could go anywhere--it would be to Europe. I want to backpack my way across the European continent. I want a one way ticket to Paris. From there I will have no plane tickets, no hotel reservations, no train tickets-- I will be solely on my own. I will be able to make my own spontaneous decisions with Europe beneath my feet. I will come back to the states when I either run out of money or am completely exhausted from my travels.
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What do you like best about the state of Mississippi?
Like the other 95% of all Mississippians when asked this question, you will get the same response from me. And that is the simple fact that people are friendly, and our men are still southern gentlemen and our ladies are just that – ladies. No where else in the world do men meet you with a smile, open the door for you, and have genuine respect for you. Also, no where else can you walk down the street and meet a total stranger and they will smile and wave as if they have known you for ten years.
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Where do you see yourself in ten years?
I see myself with a challenging career, but with a schedule that would allow me to travel and go back to the places I saw while I backpacking through Europe. I also see myself as a woman with a loving and supportive family by my side, enjoying all my favorite places with me.
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What extracurricular activities do you participate in?
I think I have tried almost every sport out there. My mother and Godmother were determined to make me a sports star. Slowly they came to realize that I was never going to be the home run hitter they always dreamed about. But, there was one thing they did do for which I am thankful. My mother put me on the swim team in the third grade. When I didn't sink to the bottom of the pool, they realized they had finally found a sport that I could do. I grew to love swimming. I swam on the swim team in middle and high school. I also swam on the club team. As my high school career is coming to an end, it came to me that I will have to close the chapter of being a swim team member, so I became a certified lifeguard and was certified in first aid. Now I am employed at one of the local pools as a lifeguard.
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Who am I?
"How old do I have to be to drive this thing without having to haul them around in this car?"- three year old Meredith exclaimed as she stood in the front seat of a brand new bright red mustang convertible moving the steering wheel left and right.

"No! No! Big Mama, I want it to fit like THIS!" four year old Meredith cried as she pulled the play dress around herself to demonstrate how grown ups worn their clothes and said "I want to look like a movie star."

We can infer from the quotes above about how I have always wanted things in my life to move quickly. Never dwelling for to long on a certain time period. My mom says that I was was born a 25 year old. I have yet to let her down on thinking anything different. As for right now, I am graduating from high school a year early, I am going off to college at 17, and I hope to earn a degree before I am 21. I know it all may seem like age is really important, but to be quite honest, I never considered myself to be a "typical teenager." I pride myself on being mature for my age, and I have always been able to see the bigger picture in life. I have found myself on several occasions as being the person that all my friends come to when they have problems. It may not be because I have great advice, but I think it goes back to the fact that I am able to not dwell on the current problem, and I am always striving to see the bigger picture and helping others see it as well.
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Tell us about your platform.
My platform is Diabetes Awareness, and this is something that hits close to home with me. I am very blessed not to have this ever-lasting disease, but my sister was not so lucky. She was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of seven. Growing up, I always assumed it would go away and she would get better. As I slowly came to realize that it wasn't going away and she was going to stay that way forever, I started to respect her even more. Even from the age of seven, she never cried, never complained, and accepted her physical limitations in life when compared to other children. Now that she is a nineteen year old woman, the respect that I feel for her is still growing.

Diabetes is something that most people know about, but not many actually understand what having the disease really means. It is an unfair war that diabetics have to fight within themselves. It is a daily battle of trying to keep their blood sugar at the perfect level because going too low and going too high put them at risk for so many life threating conditions. This is a constant battle that they know many will eventually lose. I am here to tell you that we must find a cure.

Therefore my plan of action is to encourage and educate others about diabetes. Recently I collected 150 children and young adult books and delivered them to LeBohneur Hospital in Memphis, TN. As president of Health Occupations Students of America, I also took my class along to help with the the presentation of the books and reading to the diabetic children. It was an amazing experience and I hope to have other wonderful experiences like that where I can help education the youth of our state about everything they can do to make a difference.
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