Quaker Connections

Southern-bound: Sophomore Sophie Hudson sets her sights on Tennessee

It’s the summer of 2018. The warm breeze tingles through the air and the hot sun glistens against the blue water. The pattering of feet taps down the pathway.  Before she knows it, sophomore Sophie Hudson is in the air soaring down a 40 foot cliff.  Hudson is jumping into Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee, with her family cheering her on. 

Hudson currently lives in Indiana  -- but her heart longs to be in Tennessee.  The beautiful mountains and rivers surrounding Tennessee just draw her in. She loves the friendly environment there as well as the cool rocks she can find. Hudson’s memory is chock full of vacations spent with her grandparents in Tennessee. ¨In Tennessee there is always something to do and see, and you can ride horses, four-wheelers and dirt bikes almost everywhere.¨

Hudson has other family that lives in Tennessee. About half of her family is located in Indiana and the other is in Tennessee. That’s another thing that draws her toward moving there. “All of my family is slowly moving to Tennessee and I want to be close to my family,” she said. Family is important to Hudson and she does not want to be far away from them. She grew up visiting Tennessee, which is the whole reason she fell in love with it. She feels that the atmosphere is just different from everywhere else that she’s been. ¨Indiana is just so boring.  There is nothing you can do here and the people are not really nice.  But no one in Tennessee has ever said something mean to me.¨

As she fell in love with Tennessee, she made plans to live there. She sees herself moving there after high school and attending a college in the state.¨I would like to go to the university of Tennessee or a college near Knoxville since it is close to my grandparents who live near Dale Hollow Lake.¨ Hudson wants to get a psychology degree and become a mental health counselor.

After college Hudson deeply wants to live on a farm.“I want to have cows, horses, goats, chickens, ducks, maybe an alpaca if I’m feeling brave because they are hard to train,” she explained. She loves animals; she currently has two dogs: Rowan, whom her family got in October 2020, and Hoss, whom they got in June 2020. She has always loved dogs and has rescued multiple dogs from shelters. So it is no surprise that Hudson wants dogs on her farm. 

Tennessee has left a lasting impact on Hudson’s life. It has given her memories of a lifetime that she hopes to carry on to future generations. What may have been small decisions when she was eight have now shaped her into who she is today. All of these things will continue to impact her life as she grows older. Plans change, but Hudson’s plans don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. “Times will always change and the places I go will as well,” she said. “But Tennessee will always be my home in my heart.”

Story by Luke Amos