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Chelsea Tatum is a 17-year-old senior living in Yorkville, Illinois. She lives with her mom and dad, and siblings; her  younger brother Josh, and younger sister Treasure. She is currently the girl's student spotlight writer for The Cracked Pot, but now the spotlight is on her.

This year Chelsea is taking four TPS classes: Economics, Microsoft Applications, Research Methods & Web Publications, and Tolkien. She says, " Web Research is definitely my favorite TPS class." She describes the classes as "super interesting and practical." Aside from her courses with the Potter's school, Chelsea is also taking French and a writing course.

Being a senior, Chelsea is thinking of college. She would like to attend Wheaton, and perhaps major in English or literature. After that?  "I'm not sure," Chelsea says. " I would love to do editing for a newspaper, magazine, or publishing company. And possibly some writing. Possibly." She is currently working for a small company, doing research and blogging, but doesn't know if she'd like to make a career out of that. "There are a lot of maybes in there. But I've still got a few more years to figure everything out career-wise."

Chelsea admits that between school, TCP, her work, and everything else, she has little free time. " I haven't had a lot this year, but when I do get some down-time you can find me in the library or curled up in bed with a book." She admits to reading books about writing and grammar for fun, and loves theater and improvisation. Chelsea is also very close to her friends, and hangs out with them a lot. " We go to concerts, watch movies, eat food, shop, talk, and take bunches of pictures." Chelsea says that since many of her friends are interested in photography, they have plenty of planned and impromptu photo sessions. "It's pretty awesome to have photographic documentation of almost everything we've ever done," she laughs.

Aside from the grammar books, Chelsea is interested in a great many literary masterpieces. She laughs, "my favorite book list would be so long it'd kill you." Among her top favorites, however, are A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Pride & Prejudice, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, and The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. What brings such a varied list together? "I think one thing that those authors all had in common was powerful insight into the human condition.  Each of those books painfully and (sometimes) humorously captures the deepest love, pain, sin, and desire that the human heart is capable of." Of course, Chelsea always has her "little gem", The Elements of Style, by her side while writing, and says that it is her "absolute authority on grammar and writing." Her all-time favorite band is The Beatles, whose music she says "never gets old and [. . .] never fails to make me smile."

Chelsea says that most of her family lives near her, which she describes as "fantastic." She is particularly close to her cousin, Lexi, with whom she's been best friends her whole life. " We're pretty opposite personality-wise but we like the same things and we get along great. We grew up together, we go to the same church, have the same friends, and we've been pretty much inseparable."

Although she loves many, many quotes from a number of different books, movies, and poems, Chelsea's favorite literary quote is from The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway. "She was looking into my eyes with that way she had of looking that made you wonder whether she really saw out of her own eyes. They would look on and on after everyone else's eyes in the world would have stopped looking. She looked as though there were nothing on earth she would not look at like that, and really she was afraid of so many things." Chelsea says, " I love how good writing can shamelessly break rules." Chelsea's favorite Bible verse is 2nd Corinthians 12:9, which encourages, " But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'".

Although her job is to highlight other students, this columnist's beautiful personality deserves some time in the limelight. Chelsea: an amazing writer and a wonderful girl.

 

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Ashley Coupe: Teacher Spotlights Columnist Brittney Defever: Spotlights Editor Chelsea Tatum: Student Spotlight Columnist Chelsea Tyson: News Reporter