www.selifestyle.com · NoVemBeR 2009 · soUTHeAsT Lifestyle FrEE FrEE 1 november 2oo9 Where "we" look for community news! S o u t h e a S t G u i l f o r d & S u r r o u n d i n G a r e a S Monthly in Print, Daily on thE wEb SElifestyle.com Features M m Senior Projects Help Change the World by Olivia Huey y name is Olivia Huey, and I'm a senior at Southeast Guilford. When preparing to write my first monthly column for Southeast Lifestyle, I knew immediately what it would be about: teenagers making a difference in today's tumultuous world. In 2006, John Mayer wrote a well-known song called "Waiting on the World to Change." His popular lyrics embodied our young generation's hesitancy to act on what they know they should do. He writes, "Me and all my friends/ We're all misunderstood/ They say we stand for nothing/ and There's no way we ever could." Teenagers have always gotten a bad reputation, of- ten called irresponsible, reckless, and detached from the world's problems. These same teenagers grow up to be doctors, lawyers, and congressmen. This brings us to the question, when do they actually start to care? I believe we always have. It's common knowledge that senior year is the year of Graduation Projects. Some use this time to work on things that they've always wanted to try, like photography or learning to drive a horse-drawn carriage. Others work on projects like learning to build decks or learning to cook food specific to their heritage. All of these ideas are wonderful and offer new experiences, but there are also a special few that use their time to make a difference with a cause that's important to them, a cause that may have been tugging at their conscience for quite a while. Senior Projects continued on page 6 Resident Profile: The McMillans Move to Southeast by Laura DeMaria n 2005, Charles and Maria McMillan decided they'd had enough of the noisy, rushed life they'd been sharing in Washington, DC, and decided to move. "Yards aren't that big in DC," says Charles, "and everything is rush, rush, rush." "How did you find out about Southeast?" I ask. We're sitting in the McMillan's living room on a rainy autumn afternoon. African masks line the wall and a friendly cat named Twiggy, who greeted me as I came inside, lounges at the door. "My parents are from North Carolina, and I've been coming here for a long time," says Charles, or Chuck, as Maria calls him. Maria also has a sister and brother-in-law in Greensboro. "We were looking for somewhere quiet, with a lot of space, and we found this." Chuck and Maria decided to trade their faster-paced lives for something a little more comfortable and found very little trouble adjusting. "It was hard getting used to not hearing sirens all the time!" Maria jokes. Formerly an orthopedic salesperson, Maria often traveled away from home. When they moved into Greensboro, only a few minutes away from the Forest Oaks Clinic, Chuck suggested she look there for work. "I spent my summers in high school working at an animal clinic," she explains. As it turns out, the Forest Oaks clinic was hiring, and the career change was exactly what she needed. In DC, Chuck was a consultant, and has his own company, Abcom Corporation. Since moving, he says he spends about 30% of his time consulting, and the rest being a professor for Phoenix University and Southern New Hampshire University online. It's convenient he's able to work from home, supervising as the couple expands their house through ongoing construction. A beautiful, spacious outdoor patio has already been added, a new room and bathroom, and an office space ii over the garage where Chuck will soon set up shop. We walk around the new parts of their house and Maria offers me a cold can of coconut juice (which is delicious), and she tells me her mother brought a pack of the drink down from DC the last time she visited. "That may be one thing we miss," she says, referring to the prevalence of ethnic food in DC, which is a little lacking in the Southeast area. However, "We really like that there are so many familyowned businesses around here, like Bowman Creamery and Neese's," and they hope these businesses are able to grow and advertise more widely as McMillans continued on page 16