I first moved to Jackson, Miss., when I joined the Jackson Free Press in January 2019. Excited as I may have been to find an editorial job in my home state so soon after graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi, and as much as my new coworkers welcomed me with warm smiles, I felt alone.
At USM, I spent at least some time with friends every day. In Jackson, I effectively knew no one besides the friend completing an internship with Nissan who let me crash on an air mattress in his one-bedroom Ridgeland apartment while I sorted out a more permanent housing solution. Even though he and I had been friends since we were children in the early 2000s, adjusting to post-college living left us too drained during the evenings to do much besides casually decompress.
Sure, I may be an introvert, for the most part, but I still enjoy spending meaningful time with people, socially. And I was roughly two hours away from either my college friends in Hattiesburg or the people I grew up alongside in the area between Laurel and Waynesboro. So I primarily bolstered my social health by driving home every weekend to see my family, friends and girlfriend.
Once I found a roommate, I still mostly traveled to and from work almost exclusively. Yes, that’s on me. I used to struggle with driving anxiety, even back then, so new areas with busy roads freaked me out a little. The Jackson metro felt enormous and complicated.
By the time I felt comfortable getting around, COVID happened. The world went into lockdown.
The Free Press team began working from home (a few of them on the new Mississippi Free Press), and I saw even fewer people than I did previously. Luckily, I lived with my fiancée then, and though we rarely left our home, they kept me socially engaged enough to stay sane.
Van’s Comics, Cards & Games in Ridgeland, Miss., regularly holds events where patrons can gather and discuss their hobbies over food and drink, sometimes while creators set up tables to promote their
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