"Shannon Brown: Adding new definition to your Average Girl"

                                                 By: Tanisha Hamilton, Eng 336.002

      Friends, Comrades, and Countrymen! Meet Shannon Marie Brown! Shannon is a junior here at Frostburg State University, who wishes to get into politics and become more involved with not only domestic issues, but globally as well. She won’t have to travel very far to complete these goals because the District of Columbia is very close to the Maryland area, where Shannon is currently located. She would enjoy being in the White House or Congress; however, she feels global organizations are her final destination. In order to complete the steps of becoming a congress woman or working in the white house, Shannon has to work hard and earn her way into congress. She plans on doing so by getting into politics through journalism and writing. According to Shannon, “No one writes their own speeches anymore, and from the way my generation speaks, I’m sure I’ll find an open position somewhere.” Once obtaining her almost guaranteed position in speech writing, Shannon isn’t quite sure what she will do afterwards but to work hard. She says, “I don’t want fame or for people to know my name, I just want to make a difference.”

    
Shannon is an English major and a double-minor in Political Science & Philosophy. These particular fields of study were not something that Shannon just chose out of no where; she was brought up in a house hold where reading and politics were important. She states, “All my life I’ve been reading, it’s a fundamental basis of my formative years. From reading, I went to writing and the floodgates kinda opened at that point. My father’s into politics, and I’ve always been interested in philosophy. For me, it's an easy and variable minor.” Shannon has been practicing creative writing since she was thirteen, and it’s made a huge impact on her field of study and her skills, which actually decided her major. She plans on doing an internship within a newspaper company or with the political science department, but she’d prefer to think about it next semester, when she’s closer to becoming a senior.

 
 Something most people wouldn’t know about Shannon is that she never wears pants! She says, “Some don’t notice, but I seriously wear dresses basically every day. And most people don’t realize that I’m half black, and that it helps a lot with not only school but my interests. Being bi-racial opens a lot of opportunities and I believe I can benefit from (not to sound offensive) playing the race card. I believe my background has given me a wider perspective than most get to experience.”  Shannon definitely has the best of both worlds and when she isn’t out exploring different opportunities, she’s out and about enjoying her many different hobbies. She says, “I enjoy long walks on the beach, soft poetry and sunsets on the horizon. Just kidding. I like concerts, books, climbing at Dan’s Rock, driving fast, doing yoga, writing, playing spades, reading comic books, watching political debates, playing video games and other class-inappropriate activities.” Shannon feels that all of these hobbies are very special to her, replying, “Everything’s special to someone when they personally enjoy it. I love concerts because I love the thrill, but I love yoga for relaxation and comic books due to the fact I’m a huge nerd. Everything fits under the fact that I’m a pop-culture whore, into all the quirky things from all different decades.”

    Shannon has a strong sense of opinion to match her mind-blowing personality. Frostburg State University is now known as a smoke free campus; considering the fact that Shannon is a smoker, her opinion on this is highly valued. She states, “Because I’m a smoker, I’m going to predictably answer that I don’t like the smoking ban. It’s not the fact that we’re not allowed to smoke around others; I understand that perfectly. The ban, however, was meant to restrict our rights as adults; I’ve been told the ban wasn’t just for non-smoker’s health, but to encourage us smokers to quit. I think that we’re adults and we can make those choices ourselves. And despite our compliance, we’ve been denied designated smoking areas- the only smoke-free school that doesn’t have any is this campus right here. I smoke on campus still, and I’ve seen a lot of others do it as well. Not giving us designated areas just encourages breaking the rule.”

 
Once Shannon graduates from Frostburg, she hopes to get a job or make her way into the Peace Corps. Ten years from now, you may think Shannon will be a wife and mother, in other terms, a “soccer mom”. Well, you can think again. Shannon says. “I don’t plan like that. I can say that I’m not the suburban wife- in ten years; I don’t want to have a white picket fence, 2.5 kids to drive around in a minivan for PTA meetings. Some want the apple-pie life, but I just don’t see myself satisfied living that way.”  Shannon is definitely not your average girl; she’s better than the average girl and will definitely leave her mark wherever she may go. When Shannon is long gone from this earth, she wants to be remembered as the ‘leader’, saying that “(some may say dictator, I say Queen by divine right) of Venezuela, where they called me ‘La Presidente’ and put my face on the coins. Real life, I just want people to understand we’re not living in individual worlds, and that I knew we could change that if we tried.”  As said before, Shannon is definitely not your average girl because she is so much more than that. More young ladies need to be able to have a strong sense of humor and say what they feel! It makes life so much easier. Shannon is definitely one of a kind and someone who would make a great friend! Let's hear it for Shannon Brown, "The leader".