This Land

It took leaving Oklahoma for Cecilia Whitehurst, 25, to realize her home state’s value. After spending her high school years desperately wishing to get out, she went across the country to study English at Virginia’s Washington and Lee University. Once there, she discovered that East and West Coasters, and many in the middle, assumed that she lived on a farm or in a teepee, or was from a small town, not that she came from a bigger city than most of them. She found herself defending the state she’d so desired to leave, and even more than that – she found herself believing those defenses. So it was natural that once she’d gotten her degree, with no job on the horizon, that she’d move back – and enjoy it. She spent two years freelancing as a copy editor for technical publications, before finally marrying her love for grammar and spreadsheets to her passion for great writing, and Oklahoma, and great writing about Oklahoma. She now spends her time adding Oxford commas, and warning the rest of the staff that she really does need that piece in, right now.