Random Connect Points:
Reba's Stories

  It's been two years since I brought home a rescue pup from PetsInc (that's us as I was getting ready to leave PetsInc to take her home). Flossie has been a joy every single day. Read her "gotcha" story here.

I love writing about music in my magazine assignments. This one for Columbia Metropolitan Magazine was particularly fun because I got to interview a number of people I have missed seeing perform over the last six months. Bluegrass lovers - you may recognize some of these names! Read it here.    

My latest piece in Columbia Metropolitan Magazine focuses on the state's growing hemp industry and how the resulting CBD products are being safely produced.   Read it here.

The work of journalists has always intrigued me. I went to college thinking I’d be one. Even after I decided to get my degree in PR, my senior project focused on journalistic ethics and the first amendment. Working with words and telling stories as a career had been on my radar since grade school. A series of Facebook posts over the weekend showing the final press run at The State paper’s printing operation got me to thinking about my early interest in local news and local stories. As a fourth grade Girl Scout, I was mesmerized by a tour of The State/Record’s printing operation. In sixth grade, I “published” a neighborhood magazine in the summer. I still have stacks of notebooks from middle school where I chronicled vacations, crushes, classes and thoughts about life. As a ninth grader, I had a class assignment to interview someone in the career field I thought I’d like to pursue after college. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to interview a newspaper reporter. A frien

Last July, I read Jennifer Berry Hawes' book, "Grace Will Lead Us Home ," about the Emanuel Church shootings. It shifted how I think about our state's history and race relations. The review I wrote last July feels even more relevant today than it did then. Here's a link to read the review. Over the past week, I read the book for the third time. This time with the overlay of our world's racial strife. Wow. If you don't have time to read the book, link to SC Public Radio's podcast, the SC Lede , to listen to an interview with the author. It's the next best thing.

When I went to vote absentee on Friday, I assumed with absolute confidence that my vote would be accurately cast. I’ve been voting for 41 years and never once have I questioned my assumptions about the process. That changed on Friday. I arrived at the election commission as one of many errands on my list for the day. When I saw the line of 30+ people waiting in the more-sunny-than-shady line, I didn’t hesitate to join the wait. The line moved quickly. I wore my mask as did most people in the line. Everyone respected the tape marks indicating social distancing. A staffer from the election commission walked up and down the line offering bottles of water. Once I got into the building, the process was efficient, and the staff was gracious in spite of the heat and long lines. I signed my paperwork with a properly sanitized pen at the plastic shielded window. I turned to give my paperwork to a staff member who inserted my paper ballot into the machine. It took a couple of tries to ge

Hearing someone’s voice encourages a connection that’s completely different than just exchanging a text, an email or even a handwritten letter. In today’s culture, technology often means we are losing the connection forged by voices. A voice is as distinctive to a person as his fingerprint or handwriting. The spoken word is intimate in a way the written word can never be. Over these weeks of quarantine, I’ve thought a lot about the voices I’ve let into my head through earbuds. I’ve listened to lots more music, podcasts, audiobooks and radio shows than ever before. As the days droned on, I came to realize a large part of what drew me to various programs, hosts, singers or narrators wasn’t just the stories they were telling or the information they were imparting, but it was the voice itself. There are four voices that I will always consider my “soundtrack of the pandemic” because they’ve been in my head through earbuds almost daily on  miles of walks or bike rides. These voices have