The 22-year-old is an aspiring author with numerous short stories already written.
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“I followed some poetry blogs and Twitter accounts that would share poetry and it was always so beautiful, but I never had any context,” Cothran said. “So I was always a little confused when I read it.”
Cothran’s father, Barry Cothran, said Shannon has been writing since a very young age.
“Her desire is to educate, inspire, and bring hope and beauty to others during this time of social isolation,” Barry Cothran said.
As a senior in college, Cothran is now juggling a full course load online due to the coronavirus. When quarantine measures were first put in place, Cothran decided to use the time to challenge herself to grow and use the opportunity of her at-home environment to tackle her goal.
“I really wanted to use this quarantine to bring light to other people’s lives and talk about beauty and good things,” Shannon Cothran said. “Because I think that’s important. I also wanted it to be a challenge to myself to not take this time for granted.”
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Taking the first bite out of a project is key when trying to tackle projects during quarantine, Shannon Cothran said. She understands it can be overwhelming to begin any project big or small and encourages others to not look at the whole thing.
“It could be anyone making a quilt or starting a painting — there’s often a lot of things to think about and sometimes we like to look at the big picture and think about the end result instead of thinking about what we can do right now. I think sometimes there’s really small things you can do to work towards that goal.”
Discussing her favorite reads by authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Emily Brontë and Robert Frost, Shannon Cothran has mastered crushing her quarantine goals without adding stress to her school work.
“When I had the idea, I knew it wasn’t going to be executed right away, so I didn’t put that pressure on myself,” Shannon Cothran said. “Be gracious with yourselves and don’t put pressure on (yourself) to get it all done right away, but to tackle what they can right now. Do the first small step that they need to do and don’t get overwhelmed with the immensity of it all.”
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