PHOTO BY DON HAYES PHOTOGRAPHY
Virginia Hames is active in
her church and extracurricular activities as well as working
part-time. She plans to study English with an emphasis in
writing when she leaves for college in the fall.
For Virginia Hames, the world is an open book of wonders, an
evolving journal to be studied as she makes her way toward
independence.
"I sometimes feel I'm in training," she says, her auburn
eyes dancing in time with her smile as she contemplates her
stage of life. The McKenzie High School senior is without
doubt a star in chapters remolded along the way to
accommodate a new generation of lives accountable to
posterity for their contributions to society.
Virginia, however, is unswayed by the weight of her
obligation, at the age of 18 well on her way to wisdom. "I
think all God wants me to do is be faithful," she says, in
simple sentence enfolding her talents, interests, and goals
into the will of God.
The daughter of Cumberland Presbyterian minister, Anne
Bennett Hames, and physician, Joe Hames, growing up in the
bosom of a small-town community, Virginia counts among her
blessings the enriched relationships of a high school in
which "everybody knows everybody," as well as the strong
bonds she enjoys with her older sister, Kate, and younger
brother, Holland.
"I know lots of people don't get along with their siblings,"
she muses, "I always thought that was odd, because I'm so
close to mine."
Kate is a sophomore in her first year at Bethel college,
where her mom is chaplain, her status accelerated due to her
proficiency in subjects by-passed through the college level
examination program (collegeboard.com/clep.)
The sisters are a contrast in beauty, with Kate's brunette
locks and jade green eyes lending themselves to bright
colors while Virginia's ginger curls and light dusting of
becoming freckles are brought out best by pastels.
Holland, who joined the family from South Korea when he was
three months old, is another contrast altogether, though the
siblings are like three peas in a pod, sharing friends and
activities at school and church.
Virginia tells how Holland arrived on her second birthday:
"We celebrated my birthday at a Mexican restaurant and then
went to the airport and picked him up. All the family was
gathered around; everybody was crying and Holland was
looking around... He's really a wonderful brother, he's a
great guy," she smiles. "He's always been part of the
family."
Virginia celebrates her
second birthday with her family before heading to the
airport to pick up her new brother, Holland.
Two-year-old Virginia, along
with mom, Anne, sister kate and dad, Dr. Joe Hames, welcome
Holland into their family.
Growing up, Virginia strived valiantly to follow in her
sister's footsteps. She laughs as she recounts her mother's
stories of how she trotted after Kate's bicycle on foot.
"Mom said everything Kate did, I had to do," she says, but
notes it was herself who set her standards to match those of
her intellectually gifted sister.
"I don't feel other people put pressure on me to live up to
Kate; I feel like I put my own pressure," she says,
illustrating, "'Kate got an A in this class so I have to as
well.' I think that Kate's my best friend but I want to have
my own life and not have that competition."
The sisterhood will enter a new phase later this year as
Virginia moves away to college. Torn between Asbury College
in Wilmore, Kentucky, or Wofford College in Spartanburg,
South Carolina, Virginia plans to study English with an
emphasis in writing. She ponders the possibility of working
with a publication company as an editor someday, and, a
lover of fiction, also considers writing her own novel.
"It is a goal of mine to get published one day, at least one
book," she says.
"Always a bookworm," Virginia credits her discovery of the
magic contained in books to her second grade teacher.
"I had a wonderful teacher who encouraged me to read," says
Virginia in reference to Mrs. Marcia Swallows of Capshaw
Elementary School in Cookeville. "I'd read before but never
gotten into it and enjoyed it. There was just something
about the way she taught, and she would read to us and she
showed me that there were all these stories I'd never know
about if I didn't read. It just opened up a whole new world
to me when I started reading."
Among her early favorites were the Boxcar Children series,
Amelia Bedelia, and The Baby Sitters Club.
"When we were little, we didn't watch a lot of TV," she
recalls. "My mother didn't want us to be couch potatoes, so
she would make us turn it off if she thought we were
watching too much."
She shares another childhood memory in which a snowstorm
took out the electricity so that there was no TV, though
their home was equipped with a gas-burning fireplace.
"We just gathered in the den and pulled out the sofa," she
says, describing the cozy setting. "We were all getting
cabin fever, so Mom pulled out a cross stitch sampler and
taught my sister and I how to cross stitch."
Other writers whose works have impacted Virginia through the
years include Jane Austin--"She's just an awesome writer, I
love how she studies people in her novels"--and Anne of
Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery.
"I started reading the series in the fourth grade and always
loved them," says Virginia. With eyes aglow, she tells how,
for her 16th birthday, her parents gave her a big box of
books.
"When I opened one, a plane ticket to where she lived fell
out and within 24 hours I was on a plane with my dad to
Canada and I got to see where she lived (on Prince Edward
Island, Canada)... It was the biggest surprise of my
life...a surprise like that, out of the blue, that's very
special."
Virginia enjoys traveling, one reason why she has no qualms
about leaving home for a more distant education. Born in
Spartanburg, South Carolina, on August 8, 1986, her family
moved to Cookeville when she was six years old and to
McKenzie when she going into sixth grade at age 11. With the
family came Dinah, her cat since she was in the first grade,
and Dinah's brother, Tom. The family also has two dogs,
Lucy, a basset hound, and Boomer, whose ancestry is
uncertain.
While she missed access to bigger venue restaurants like
O'Charleys, Long John Silver's, Applebees, and Red Lobster,
Virginia says she looked on the move to McKenzie as a new
opportunity. It's how she views much of life.
She was 12 years old when she noticed in Brio magazine (www.briomag.com)
a pending mission trip to Brazil, sponsored by the Focus on
the Family ministry, and asked permission to go.
"Mom was freaking out," she says, "But I prayed about it and
thought the Lord was calling me to go."
With half the money raised through her own efforts, her
parents paid the other half of the trip's cost.
"When we landed in Rio de Janiero, it was major culture
shock," Virginia says, wide-eyed, and then compassionate.
"That was the most life changing experience I ever had; I've
never seen that great of poverty. People were living in
cardboard boxes at the garbage dump. They search for
aluminum cans to sell and search for valuable objects; they
had nowhere else to go."
When she arrived back home, she says, "I started looking at
all the stuff I had. It all seemed so trivial compared to
all the people living in poverty. I put it into order that
material things don't matter that much. Sometimes I know
I'll start to be too materialistic and I'll have to remind
myself that, if I don't get this pair of jeans, it won't
kill me, or having latest pair of shoes is not that
important; there are children who go to sleep hungry.
"I feel I have been given so much "and 'from those to whom
much is given, much is to be expected,'" she continues,
paraphrasing scripture. "I've been so blessed, I feel I'm
obligated to give to people who don't have as much as I do."
Part of her blessing has been a tradition of attending Camp
Greystone (www.campgreystone.com) for five weeks each summer
over the past ten years; last year was her final year at the
Christian summer camp for girls ages 6 to 17, located on
Lake Edith in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North
Carolina.
PHOTO BY DON HAYES PHOTOGRAPHY
Virginia, a senior at McKenzie High
School, will soon decide whether she will continue her
education at Asbury College or Wofford College.
During each intervening school year, Virginia and other
girls in her cabin corresponded while looking forward to the
next summer. Having now outgrown the camp's age range, they
continue to keep track of each other, these days by email.
Virginia was able to attain another goal--traveling to
Europe before she turned 21--when, as a high school
freshman, she visited Ireland, England and France through a
summer school trip.
With the current school year winding down in its final
months before graduation, Virginia works in the school
library, her main responsibility being to keep the magazines
current as new ones come in. She also works at the Starbucks
lounge, located at Bethel's student center, two nights a
week.
"I enjoy working there, meeting all those people," she says.
And she is very much involved in youth activities at the
First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in McKenzie as well as
helping out in the nursery some Sundays.
"Our youth director, Ben Warren, started in May and he's
been amazing," says Virginia.
She recounts the youth group's recent participation in World
Vision's 30-hour Famine project (www.30hourfamine.org).
"We didn't eat for 30 hours in order to raise money for
starving kids in Asia and Africa," she explains. "It was
tough."
Adding emphasis to the exercise, the teens served supper to
parishioners dining at the church before breaking their
fast.
"We served them, then went to kitchen and had communion and
ate," she says.
Virginia and two-year-old godson Caleb. |
While she declares it will be a long time before she
thinks about a family of her own, she is already godmother
to two-year-old Caleb Grafton, son of her second cousin, Meg
Grafton, and Meg's husband Charles, who live in New Orleans.
"I was a bridesmaid at her wedding and she took me under her
wing," Virginia tells. "We started writing back and forth
about five years ago and during my sophomore year she asked
me to be godmother--I was really surprised, very happy--he's
just the greatest little kid."
Virginia laments that she typically gets to see Caleb, who
now has a little brother, Nate, only twice a year at
Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"Sometimes in the summer I go visit her and see him then,"
she adds.
With the first summer of her adulthood approaching, her
plans this year will probably include church camp and
perhaps a summer mission trip that her mother has in the
planning stages, plus trips to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and
South Carolina for family weddings.
By that time she will likely have made her choice between
Asbury (www.asbury.edu) and Wofford (www.wofford.edu).
"Asbury has a great English program--they both do," she
sighs. "And the spiritual life at Asbury is very good. I
just don't know how I'm going to choose."
Wofford is located near Union, South Carolina, the home of
her grandparents Anne and Boyd Hames, a retired physician.
"My grandfather graduated from Wofford and so did my uncle
(Charles Hames)," says Virginia.
Her maternal grandparents are Alfred Bennett and Martha
Bennett. Martha lives in Monteagle, Tennessee. Alfred and
wife Evelyn live in Nolensville, Tennessee.
Having already been offered a scholarship from Asbury, she
awaits word from Wofford concerning their offering. With
Virginia doing the choosing, the real question is, "Which
college wins?"
