Editor’s note: How do young people view the Golden Triangle? It’s a question that interested us. So when University of Mississippi journalism students came to Columbus recently to work on a package of stories with The Dispatch, we asked them to find out. The students interviewed eight local young people from differing backgrounds. Throughout this week, we are presenting their stories and how this area has shaped them. Today, we feature Moeshia Clemons.
Moeshia Clemons is living the high school dream: she’s a three-sport athlete, is well liked by her classmates, has excellent grades and is on track to graduate this spring.
But one thing sets her apart from many students her age. Clemons, 18, is the proud mother to her two-year-old son, Kaden.
In February 2011, Clemons went to the health department for a checkup and her world changed. Clemons, who was 16 at the time, found out that she was expecting a child with her then-boyfriend. Despite the judgment and rumors that followed, Clemons is determined to prove those who doubted her wrong and show that her mistakes have become her biggest lessons.
“I really don’t ask no one now for any help because I had my baby on my own and I can take care of him,” Clemons said. “My mother sees it as pride but I don’t see it as pride. I just see it as something I chose to do and I’ve got to take care of him.”
Juggling school, athletics and raising a child has proved challenging. Thankfully, her mother, sister, and the father’s family help. Her son goes to daycare while she’s at school and if she has a conflict with picking him up after class, a cousin will pick him up and take him back to Clemons’ home, where her mother will look after him. If there is nobody to watch her son, she takes him to practices, where he is thought of as the “team baby.”
Her son’s father helps provide diapers and clothing and tries to see him over the weekends and during breaks from school. Though the two are on friendly terms, they don’t see a future together, she said.
Those who know Clemons best marvel at her ability to balance motherhood and schoolwork.
“Many young parents don’t continue through high school or play any sports,” said younger sister La’Quesha Clemons. “I think she’s doing very well. She’s strong being there for her son.”
Besides being a mother, Clemons is a starting center for her basketball team and a setter for her volleyball team. She is involved in ROTC and although she was offered a volleyball scholarship at Mississippi Valley State University, she plans on following her dreams and joining the Army after high school. In her spare time, she enjoys singing gospel music and dancing for the Real Life Church. She also helps La’Quesha take care of their mother, who was diagnosed with lupus and goes through dialysis three days a week.
At West Lowndes, faculty describe Clemons as mature, always smiling, motivating, and one who picks you up when you’re feeling down.
“She doesn’t make any excuses,” volleyball coach Simeon Weatherby said. “She takes what she has and goes with it. She doesn’t want to be a victim of her environment and if she can get away from this environment, she has the opportunity to grow so much. She’s a natural winner.”
Clemons hopes to one day settle down, get married and move out of Columbus to explore somewhere new.
“I don’t see myself living down here,” she said. “I would take the first ticket out of here. I enjoy being in Columbus and it isn’t bad, but I just got to get out and experience different things because I’ve never left Mississippi and I don’t want my son to be like that. I want him to experience things and have fun and enjoy life like I did.”
Clemons likes Columbus because of the variety of restaurants, the jobs that are available, and that her family is here. But those reasons are not enough to make her stay. She thinks that Columbus would be a better place if parents were more caring and watched out more for their children. She is also concerned about the violence she has seen.
“The last party I went to, there were gunshots and I was scared half to death,” she said. “I don’t go to parties in Columbus anymore. It was someplace that I didn’t want to be at. Everybody just wants to have fun without gunshots going off and fights.”
Those who have come to know and love Clemons are optimistic about her future.
“I have all the respect for her in the world because she went three years with having a baby and playing a sport,” basketball coach Anthony King said. “She pushed through and she made it. She can do anything. For her the sky is the limit.”
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