Cause a Mississippi girl don't change her ways

“Thank you for calling the offices of Brown, Tullis, and Schneider, this is Carrie, how can I direct your call today?" That is my opening line when I answer the phone at work. I'm striving to get my own songs picked up by some big time musician, but I spend most of my time on the phone at this law firm scheduling appointments, and meals for the attorneys I work for. Normally you couldn't catch me anywhere near lawyers or court rooms, it's just not my cup of tea. But these are entertainment lawyers, which given the right introductions, could get my foot in the door. The only problem is not too often do you have that kind of oppurtunity.

That changed this morning. Just when I was so frustrated with the nonstop phone calls, and constantly being mistakenly called Carolyn, my luck changed. Opportunity was knocking, I just had to get off my ass and answer the call. Clive Davis, the major music mogul, strolled in through the doors with a small entourage. I was handling one call, with two more on hold when I finally laid eyes on him. He was just the man that I wanted to hear my music. He announced with kind eyes that he had an appointment with Tullis at 2:00pm. With a shaky voice I put the caller on hold, and buzzed Tullis to let him know his next appointment was here. Usually I just showed the client the coffee bar and let them wait to be summoned. But this was Clive frickin Davis. I took a few deep breaths and pulled myself together. "Mr. Davis if you'd like to follow me, I'll show you to the conference room."

Leading him down a long hallway I cleared my throat. "I hope you don't mind me saying, but I'm a big fan of all of your achievements." I smiled big, noting my southern accent was a little more thick due to my nervousness. He was kind and just smiled thanking me for my nice words. I pushed myself a little further. "I have three jobs to pay my bills, but my true love is music, especially writing my own songs, so you are sort of my idol, you know, someone I've always wanted to meet." I opened the conference room door for him and just continued to smile, hoping my knees didn't buckle due to the nerves. I couldn't believe my eyes or ears when he handed me his card with his office location and number, and told me to drop off some of my work, and he'd give it a listen. He then said that Mr. Tullis was a good man and that if he hired me to do this job, then he knew it would be worth his time to help a 'friend' of Tullis. Resisting the urge to jump for joy and hug the old man, I simply thanked him and told him Tullis would be with him soon.

Now I'msitting in front of my computer going through my library of my own songs. Could my dreams really be one step closer to happening? All I know is this is surreal and I'm not going to sleep until I pick out my five best songs to submit to Clive. It could be a long night.

Carrie Jean Briggs was born on Oct 23, 1986 to Charles and Lydia Briggs and middle class family from Tupelo, Mississippi. She was the fifth of seven children in her family, and from the time she could read she was taking care of herself, in the little ways that she could. On Saturday mornings she would wake to find any book out of the family's growing collection of books, and read it in her rocking chair, quietly so not to disturb anyone.

Carrie did well in school, and at the age of 14 got a job grooming dogs. She always knew she never wanted to rely on anyone else to take care of her, especially since she had two younger siblings her parents had to take care of, and college tuitions for her older siblings.

In high school with her spare time Carrie helped write songs to accompany plays that were original to their school. It was then that she realized her love for song-writing. Something about hearing something she worked on being performed by someone else who could do it justice made her glow.

The rest of high school was spent with her boyfriend Phil, and playing tennis. Phil was a football player that didn't fall for the cheerleader, but the quiet, musical tennis player. He courted her through freshman year, with Carrie resisting. She didn't know much about boys, and didn't care much to date one. But then sophomore year came, and her small group of friends all had dates to the homecoming dance, so she gave in, agreeing to one night out. He surprised her by showing up early to pick her up, meeting her parents, assuring she'd be home before curfew, and playing with her dog. He was endearing, and it broke down her wall. The evening was romantic, Phil admitted he felt he was about ready to give up on her, and it must be fate that she gave in. He returned her to her house a whole half an hour early, with just a peck on the cheek, leaving her knees weak, and her mind
swirling.

Phil and Carrie dated through the rest of high school, being the voted "Most Likely to Marry" in their senior year. Phil was offered a scholarship for football to The University of Mississippi, and Carrie was offered a scholarship for tennis there as well. While everyone celebrated the pair's bright future together, Carrie couldn't help but feel like this wasn't what she wanted. While thinking about it, and avoiding Phil for a week, she realized that she wanted to be a song-writer. But she couldn't do that in Tupelo, she couldn't even do that in Mississippi. She needed to move to Nashville.

Graduation time came and went, and the night after their graduation ceremony, Phil picked Carrie up to take her out, but for what and where
was a secret. They went to dinner at the nicest place in town, then parked
by the Tombigbee River. Carrie had a feeling what was about to happen so she had to stop it.

Carrie: "Wait, Phil. We need to talk."
Phil: *beaming* "Yes I know that's why I brought you here."
Carrie: "No before you get to that. Phil, I'm not going to school with you."
Phil: *Frowning a bit, but still determined* "Okay. What, you got a better offer from another school?"
Carrie: *sighing* "Phil, I wish it was that easy. But it just isn't." *She sees his face falling and the confession starts pouring out of her* "It's just that when I search my soul, and try to find what I really want out of life, it's just not tennis and it's not an early engagement and marriage, and settling down in Mississippi. Tupelo has been nice to grow up in, but I want something different for myself, and what I want is to live in Nashville and to be a successful song-writer."
Phil: *Getting hurt so not able to control being rude* "So you're going to throw away a sure thing for something that you don't know will ever happen?"
Carrie: " I don't know Phil, I just know that I've done a lot of thinking and this way there'll be no regrets."
Phil: " So that's what I am to you, is one big regret?"
Carrie: "No, you've never been a regret Phil. I just don't want to wake up in forty years and regret that I didn't go after my dreams. It's the same as if I were to ask you to give up your football scholarshipand come to Nashville with me. You might hate me and regret that choice somewhere down the road."
Phil: "There's two differences though, one you never asked me to come with you to Nashville. If you had, I might've tried to get a scholarship there or somewhere close to there because I love you. Two, I'm regretting the year I spent trying to get you to date me. If I would've just moved on after the first no, I might be sitting here with a girl who would want to go away to college with me with this ring on her finger." He finally pulled that black velvet box out of his coat pocket and she turned her head.
Carrie: “You've made your points and they were hurtful, but don't rub salt in the wound by showing me that. Just take me home Phil."

They were both hurt, but Phil did as she said and drove her home. She stepped out of his car, and he muttered a good luck which she returned. He drove away, kicking up gravel with his accelerating speed. A week went by and Carrie was all packed and ready to get out of town. Lordex was her destination and she couldn't wait to get out and start on the pathway to her dreams.

Now four years had gone by, Carrie graduated from college with a degree in performance arts. Now she works three jobs, two to pay back loans, and one to live on. In her small amount of spare time she hits up bars for open mic night to try and sell her songs.

(Author's note: When it comes to the conversation at the river between Carrie and her ex Phil, I don't normally write with asterisks to display actions, but Ai typed this all on my iPod and was trying to get all of my ideas out. I'll get it edited on a computer soon and the whole thing will be better! Thank you!)