MALE_1: The following program is a West Tennessee PBS special presentation made possible through the generous financial support of viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.

Peter Noll: Hello.

I'm Peter Noll, West Tennessee PBS General Manager and CEO.

West Tennessee is home to many great people who have gone on to accomplish great things.

West Tennessee PBS wants to put the spotlight on these people, to find out what inspired them, and how they're upbringing here in West Tennessee has shaped their lives and what they're up to today.

This is the first in a series of special programs, West Tennessee PBS presents Spotlight 11.

How did growing up in Jackson influence you put in that vote count?

Shayla Reaves: I was always challenged academically growing up, and I always felt supported academically and challenged academically.

There were not always a lot of people that looked like me in my classes.

I moved to Minnesota during the pandemic, so a lot of my relationships there were made virtually.

People have a lot of stories to tell and I feel that people respond to all of us in a different way and I look at myself as a place for stories to land.

Peter Noll: Did she get into trouble at all?

Linda Reaves: In the summertime, when all the other kids were out playing, she would be in the house reading and her dad and I would have to make her go outside and sit on the step.

Jean Norville: I just knew she'd be something great.

I never thought about her being on television.

Shayla Reaves: Because I'm as emotional as I still am, and he's very much a part of it.

He's very much present at all the pieces.

Peter Noll: She's a major market television news anchor at one of the premier stations in the country.

She makes her own jewelry, and she has a smile that lights up the room and she's just written a children's book about Martin Luther King Junior.

Jackson native Shayla Reaves is this Spotlight 11.

Shayla Reaves: People are people, not color-coated crimes.

People are people.

Just listen.

Do you hear the echo in the distance?

MALE_2: This is WCCO news, always streaming on CBS News Minnesota.

Shayla Reaves: Thank you for watching WCCO.

I'm Shayla Reaves.

Get ready for another day in the '80s.

It's a beautiful sunny day in downtown Minneapolis.

MALE_3: Jackson native Shayla Reaves is one of the most popular anchors at WCCO Television Minnesota, a legendary and top-rated CBS station.

Shayla began at the Minneapolis station in 2020, the latest stop on a journey in front of the camera that has taken her from North Carolina to Florida from Ohio to Kentucky, and includes interning at Jackson's WBBJ Channel 7.

Born as Shayla Michelle Reaves in Chattanooga to Linda and Mike Reaves and moving to Jackson three months later.

She was their only child and was the apple of her parents' eyes.

Shayla's mother describes her as a daddy's girl with whom she had an especially close relationship.

Mike Reaves worked overnights for the Jackson post office so he could be home in the mornings to drop off Shayla at school each day, and was the first parent in line to pick Shayla up in the afternoons.

Sadly, her father passed away in August of 2022.

Shayla is a proud graduate of the University School of Jackson, which she credits for giving her the love of writing and of learning that has served her well in her career.

Shayla went on to graduate top of her class from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in Illinois before beginning her television career.

She is reported on severe weather outbreaks and breaking crime stories.

But it is Shayla's love of people and community that truly shines in her storytelling.

FEMALE_1: Hey.

Just relaxing AJ.

What we do on any rainy day hang out in a court pit.

You are still holding it, right?

MALE_4: Yeah, I'm still holding.

Shayla Reaves: Okay.

Don't let go.

MALE_4: Go ahead and put this hand up here.

Shayla Reaves: I don't have it on the bottom.

MALE_4: Then put this hand down on the bottom.

Shayla Reaves: I don't have it yet.

MALE_4: There you go.

Shayla Reaves: I don't have the feet.

Do I have the feet?

MALE_4: Yeah.

You're in between the feet.

You're good.

You got it, there you go.

Shayla Reaves: Okay, guys.

I'm holding a chicken.

We are holding a chicken and you know what?

You can do this too.

So yoga is our guide this morning, guys.

We're trucking along I'm sure the wonderful folks that are practicing are ready for us to wrap up.

MALE_5: Yeah, you got little timers here and they like their ice right away in the morning.

Shayla Reaves: Slow and steady wins the race guys.

MALE_3: It is Shayla's storytelling that is her latest accomplishment as a recently published author of a children's book.

The Echo In The Distance, A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Junior.

Esmay: WCCO TV anchor Shayla Michelle Reaves has a new book out that will be published tomorrow.

It's called An Echo In The Distance.

It honors Dr. Martin Luther King Junior.

It is beautifully illustrated by the gifted local artist, Caprecia Ambers.

It's a children's book.

It's an adult book.

It's an every-person book.

It's a poem that this lady wrote 20 years ago.

The multi-talented Shayla Reaves joins us now.

Thank you so much, and this book is just going to take off, I know it.

Tell us about it.

It's really a brilliant tribute to Dr. King.

FEMALE_1: Yes, it is and as I told you, Esmay this journey for me, it started 20 years ago when I was a freshman in college.

Esmay: At Northwestern.

Shayla Reaves: Yes, at Northwestern University.

We had a written expression competition and like many other students on campus, I entered this competition.

I didn't know where my piece would land.

I ended up winning, performed this piece in 2003, and like anything, if you don't do anything with it, it collects dust.

But I always wondered, what could this piece look like if it was turned into an illustrated book.

Jean Norville: As a published author, it was only fitting that we met up with Shayla at USJ's Library, her Alma mater.

We dug around.

Shayla Reaves: Oh, did you find me?

Jean Norville: Yes, you graduated in 2002.

FEMALE_1: Yes, how am I looking on here?

Jean Norville: Where are you on here?

Do you remember?

Shayla Reaves: Yes, look at that face.

Jean Norville: Shayla Reaves there you are.

Shayla Reaves: Yes, look at that.

Jean Norville: What do you remember about that photo?

Shayla Reaves: Look at me, spry young high schooler, trying to figure out what I wanted to do next.

I know at this time in life that I definitely wanted to pursue a career in writing.

I know that I had very lofty goals, very lofty dreams and I also was somebody that was still trying to figure it out at the same time.

But I also was someone that was very and I still am in some ways I would say, very focused.

But I think when I look at who this person was or who this person was, I'm very proud of her, but I also would tell her, "Take a breath."

You're going to be okay and I would tell her, you're doing just fine and it's all going to work out, you're on the right track and just keep going.

Jean Norville: What was most surprising about the whole experience?

Cause you wrote that back in college, correct?

Shayla Reaves: Yes.

Jean Norville: But now, putting it to paper, a hardcover book, what's been the most surprising part about that?

Shayla Reaves: I think anytime you're learning something new and doing something new, you don't know what you don't know.

I think the most surprising part of this journey is all of the new things that the book is teaching me.

Because I have ideas and I had ideas for what I wanted the book to do and how I hope that it connected with people.

Why and how I wanted it to reach people when it entered the world.

But people always surprise me when they share the ways that it impacted them.

I try not to box myself into where it can go, and what it can be, and what it can do.

I try to remain open to the journey of possibility.

What does that mean?

For example, when I was trying to decide the age for this, because this book started as a spoken word piece.

When I was a freshman in college, I entered a competition for Dr. King at Northwestern University.

It started as a spoken word piece written as a freshman in college.

The language for this book is a little bit elevated, but my partner for publishing said, well, you're publishing an illustrated book, so you have to give this an age.

I'm thinking, well we have to give it an age, and so they said grades three through five.

I'm thinking, well, I'm looking at this book, but I feel like the book could really connect, not just with grades three through five, but people who buy books for young readers.

It could connect with older people too, but because it looks like this, it has to connect with an actual age, so we had to give it grades 3-5.

But I feel like whether you're grades 3-5, or 4-5, or 5-5, this book can be impactful and meaningful in different ways.

It took me 20 years to put this into the world and I feel that there are other people that may be holding my dream in their hand that are sitting on something that they haven't put into the world.

Maybe it's not a book, maybe it's a business idea, maybe it's a career change, Maybe it's some fancy thing that's sitting in the back of their closet that they've wanted to repurpose and turn into something new.

It may be something that someone else is sitting on that they've been afraid to put into the world.

My real hope is that others will hold my dream in their hand and be inspired to go out and pursue whatever that thing is that they're sitting on to.

Peter Noll: When I first read the book, I thought, I can tell someone who's on TV wrote it.

Just because you learn to write as you talk.

Because you're writing for the ear, not necessarily because no one's going to read it, they're going to hear it.

When I was like, because when you read it out loud, the story really comes alive.

Now, as you said, so I thought, you can tell Shayla was on TV because it's almost when you settled for spoken words.

Shayla Reaves: You experience it differently when you hear it.

That's one of the experiences when people hear it, they are like whoa.

You just feel it in a different way.

Peter Noll: As we've been going through the halls here, and what are you doing now, what do you tell people are like, what are you doing now?

What do you tell people?

What are you doing now?

Shayla Reaves: What am I not doing?

I feel like I'm always so busy.

I'm always trying to remain open to trying new things, doing new things.

Right now, I'm anchoring the news in Minneapolis, and I'm also reporting in the mornings there.

When I'm not there, I'm out in the community and meeting new people, and seeing events and engaging in that space.

I'm also out sharing the book.

I'm participating in all book related events, book signings, all kinds of things in the community in Minnesota right now.

I am literally going where I'm invited.

Whether it's virtual, whether it's in person, I am feeling as if I'm making up for lost time because I moved to Minnesota during the pandemic, so a lot of my relationships there were made virtually.

I've spent a lot of the time now, I feel in the last year or so trying to connect and build in person connections that were started in a virtual space.

Peter Noll: Was that scary movie during the pandemic.

It was also like half a year after the George Floyd killing.

Shayla Reaves: I was very intentional about moving to Minnesota and it wasn't scary for me.

I usually try to be intentional in the sense that the specific things that I do well, I felt that they would make a difference in a community like this one at a time like now.

People have told me throughout my career, if I have to learn sad news, I want to learn it from you.

I've also been told that people like to talk to me.

Those are two things that have followed me everywhere, no matter what city that I've lived in.

I feel that the specific things that I do well would be impactful in a community like this one at a time like now.

Peter Noll: How have you impacted them?

Shayla Reaves: People have a lot of stories to tell and I feel that people respond to all of us in a different way.

I look at my self as a place for stories to land.

I feel that if people connect with me in a meaningful way, then they reach out, they share their stories with me.

Those are more stories that I have an opportunity to connect with my station, which are more stories that we in turn have a chance to know about, to have an opportunity to go cover, or at least consider for our shows.

Peter Noll: What's one of the one story that sticks out in your mind that feels really speaks to your heart.

Shayla Reaves: One of the ones that has been really close, it's a reoccurring one that I've followed up with year after year after year.

It's a scholarship program that I learned about when I first moved to Minnesota.

They were one of the first people that reached out to me, Wilson's Image Barbers and Stylus.

Tito Wilson is the owner of the barber shop and he had launched this scholarship program.

It was his goal in launching it to give back to the students in his particular community.

His ultimate goal has been to be able to give full right scholarships to the students in the community.

He had done some stories with other outlets, and for whatever reason when we did our story, people really connected with the coverage.

Since we did our story, he's brought in thousands of dollars.

I have to go back and check the latest number, but it's gotten up to, I want to say one of our viewers donated maybe 50,000 it was a really large number.

I'll check and get you the actual story that we did for the latest number.

But I think he got $50,000 from our specific viewers and our specific coverage.

I personally just enjoy telling stories that people remember.

I guess one of the most important things that I've been told throughout my journalism career and one of the first things that really stuck with me throughout my career is people remember how they feel more than anything.

They don't remember that 12 people came to the party, but they remember that the party made them feel happy.

The types of stories that I tell, I always try to find ways to connect people to experiences outside of their own.

You may not live in the same part of town as someone else, but maybe you relate to the experience of being a parent.

Or maybe you relate to the experience of being a child.

Or there are things that are common threads and experiences that no matter what part of town that you're in, you can relate to that piece and you don't have to live in a certain part of town to relate to that part of the story.

I look for those moments and I look at my job also as a way to introduce people to their neighbors.

In Minnesota, I feel that one of the best things that I get to do is show people in their own neighborhood that they can go support.

It's so exciting when you look at the comments, you're like, I didn't know this person was there.

I got to go see what they're doing.

I got to go check out their business.

I got to go support so and so.

I didn't realize that he or she was there.

Peter Noll: How did growing up in Jackson influence you putting that book out?

Shayla Reaves: That's a good question.

Nobody's ever asked me that question.

Well, I feel like growing up in Jackson, I felt my parents always made sure that I was grounded.

I know growing up USJ, usually the school itself.

I was always challenged academically growing up, and I always felt supported academically and challenged academically.

There were not always a lot of people that looked like me in my classes.

I think when I graduated, it was less than five African-American students in our graduating class.

But my parents always did a good job as far as making sure that I was connected and knew who I was.

I always had a sense of self.

Even though you go to school at a place where you're not always seeing people who look like you, I felt very supported when I came here to grow academically.

Then I also felt supported when I wasn't here, as far as the people that were in my life encouraging me and supporting me as far as I always had books to read that reflected me and looked like me.

We had books around at home.

I was just trying to remember we used to have the child craft.

Do you remember child craft?

I always loved reading child craft.

We had the encyclopedia sets, we had books around growing up.

I remember when I started here in kindergarten, I wanted to learn how to read, and we had the little laminated books.

I don't know if the teachers put those together, but they had the bins full of books.

That was my goal for kindergarten is I wanted to learn how to read.

But I always was supported in growing and I always felt challenged.

I felt one of the people that is no longer here but was always encouraging me to reach for the next thing was Ms. Carolyn Apps as well.

She was our college counselor person.

I remember when I was applying for colleges, she was like, well, why don't you do this.

I always remember she was instrumental in just telling me to keep reaching for different things and not settling for less and not being afraid to try for more.

I've always aspired for greatness and I've never thought that I couldn't achieve the things that I wanted.

I always had people in my life who always said, sure, why not.

Peter Noll: You mentioned there weren't a lot of people that looked like you at USJ.

Then what did your folks say when you're like, hey, I'm moving to Minnesota.

Minnesota's not known for a lot of diversity.

Shayla Reaves: My journey, let me do the trajectory.

Went to school outside of Chicago.

Worked in Louisville Kentucky.

Columbus Ohio.

Tampa Florida.

Tampa itself is a diverse, but the where I worked, there was not.

There wasn't a lot of us there.

Then I went to a station in North Carolina that was mostly people of color, and then I went to the exact opposite when I came to Minnesota.

It was a thought, I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm going back into a completely different situation.

My parents didn't say that they were worried about it?

No.

This is me being frank and thinking of this on the cuff here.

My parents didn't express that I recall that they were worried about me being there in the aftermath of George Floyd and all of that.

I was being intentional about it.

I did have some worry about like, how is this experience going to be?

Because I had been in other experiences where there weren't as many people that looked like me, but I was also looking at being intentional and that the specific skills that I brought to the table, I was trying to be guided by that, and then I was also being guided by the experience I had when I went to interview there, and the genuineness of the people that I met on my interview and I was like wow.

It's a completely different experience when you're with people who have been somewhere for a very long time, they're older, they settled, they're content with where they are in their life because they show up differently in your life.

Because you can bring your whole self to the table when you're interacting with people, no matter what they look like, when they're happy in their life.

Because you don't feel as if you're in constant competition, because they show up and they see you and they experience you fully, and you don't feel like you have to hold back, regardless of what they look like.

I felt as if the people that I met there were people that were genuinely content with where they were in their lives so that I felt like I could show up more whole.

Even though the people that I was going to be working with mostly didn't look like me, they were content with where they were, and I felt like this was a place where I could show up more full and whole.

Because I had been in places where a lot of what we do as you have experienced in television, we move so much, and it's a lot of people are competing and they're like buying for their place and their spot in their home.

Minnesota is one of those places that a lot of people who are from Minnesota oftentimes want to come back.

There's a lot of people in our news room that are from Minnesota.

A lot of places that I've worked, it's people from a lot of other places in the news room.

The news room I've met is a lot of people that are coming home, and so they like the place, and they want to be in the place and they're very connected to the place.

You've experienced it differently where there are people that have been there for years and they're allowing you're able to show up more fully when you don't feel that you're there to compete, and you feel that they genuinely want to know who you are.

Peter Noll: Knowing Shayla is something lots of people in Jackson do, as West Tennessee PBS saw firsthand on a book signing at Floral Cakes in downtown Jackson in September of this year.

For hours there was a constant line of people wanting to say hello to Shayla.

Many are family friends or know her through church.

Shayla sold out all copies of her book that day.

Jackson City Councilman Frank Mcmean was also on hand for a special city proclamation, naming it Shayla Michelle Reaves Day.

USJ is one of the places here in Jackson that served as a home away from home for Shayla for many years, and it is a place where Shayla Reaves is still remembered, and brings a smile to faces.

We witnessed this firsthand as we strolled the halls of USJ.

Shayla Reaves: Hey, Mr. Glossy.

Mr. Glossy: Speaking of Costa Rica's success story.

Shayla Reaves: This was almost 20 years ago.

Thank you.

How are you?

Peter Noll: One of the teachers at USJ that Shayla speaks of often and credits with sparking her love of writing is Jenna Norville or Mrs. Norville as Shayla still calls her, and she has dedicated echoes in the distance to Mrs. Norville.

I sat down with a retired English teacher along with Shayla's mother, Linda.

Looking back, is this what you envisioned Shayla would be doing?

Linda Reaves: I did not.

When she first started writing and she come home and she said, I want to write a book.

I thought, well, is this something you can do to make money out of?

I didn't understand exactly Mrs. Norville was encouraging her to do writings and going to that young.

I did not expect her to do where she is now.

But I knew she was extremely talented in her writings because she constantly was writing all the time at home.

Peter Noll: When she told you I'm going to move to Minnesota, what did you think?

Linda Reaves: At this point, I was excited for her because she had been in four states before that.

She actually has traveled.

When she graduated from Northwestern, she moved to Kentucky.

That was her first position.

Then she left Kentucky, went to Ohio.

From there she went to Tampa, from there she went to North Carolina.

When she went to Minnesota, and they both liked that area, I thought now maybe we can settle down somewhere.

I was happy for her.

Peter Noll: You've been to all these places?

Linda Reaves: Yes.

Peter Noll: Have you been to Minnesota in January?

Linda Reaves: Yes.

Peter Noll: And?

Linda Reaves: Fortunately, the last year that I was there, the weather in Minnesota was not the weather that I was expecting.

I was expecting more of all the snow, the ice, and the real cold.

It was cold a couple of days, but actually it was weather like here in Jackson.

That was the first time they said that the weather had been like that in years.

I didn't get to experience the real cold, icy weather, but I enjoyed it.

Peter Noll: If Shayla was not a news anchor, what would she be doing?

Linda Reaves: Teaching.

Peter Noll: Teaching what?

Linda Reaves: School.

Peter Noll: What?

Linda Reaves: I would say she's very good at smaller children.

I would say kindergarten to maybe middle school, but that's what I would have envisioned her doing is teaching.

Peter Noll: Did she get into trouble at all?

Linda Reaves: Very few times where she ever got in trouble.

She wanted to please you.

Peter Noll: What does she get in trouble for?

Linda Reaves: The only thing that she would get in trouble with is if she would make mud cakes in the house and hide them, or she would do it.

Peter Noll: Do you remember what type of cake.

Linda Reaves: She would like mud cakes, where they go out and with the mud and stuff and hide them in the house, or she and her little childhood friend, they would do stuff that put together like a brain and stored in my refrigerator, and when I had opened the refrigerator there this was.

That's about what she would get in trouble about.

She was not one of those kids that stayed in trouble a lot.

She loved to read.

Shayla was the child that in the summertime when all the other kids were out playing, she would be in the house reading and her dad and I would have to make her go outside, go outside and sit on the step, get some sun.

Her main thing was reading, she loved to read and write.

Peter Noll: She said she comes back a couple of times a year, how often do you go and visit her?

Linda Reaves: She's been in Minnesota, now because I've only been there, I think this is going into their third year, so I've been there I think three times.

And then of course, her dad passed last year and I spent the holidays with her there, Thanksgiving and Christmas there with them.

Peter Noll: What did she tell you about the Minnesota State Fair?

Linda Reaves: She said it was just like a community homecoming.

Everybody there, that's where everybody meets and gathers and that's a yearly thing.

It's not like, what I'm I trying to say?

It's not like just a small community, it's everybody.

Peter Noll: The whole state.

Linda Reaves: The whole state.

Yes.

The whole state was together at that state fair.

Peter Noll: There was a lot and it may have changed that you couldn't start school until after Labor Day, so everyone could go to the fair.

Linda Reaves: Oh, really?

Well that used to be how the school was here.

We didn't go to school until after Labor Day of course it's changed now.

But everybody we went to the fair and then school started.

Peter Noll: What is something most people don't know about Shayla?

Linda Reaves: Most people don't know about Shayla, she's funny.

A lot of people don't know how funny she is.

She's a talker, of course everybody knows that, but she's a very sensitive person.

She feels things really deeply and I think some people know that but for the most I think they don't know that she's very funny , she tells jokes.

[LAUGHTER] Peter Noll: Mrs. Norville, the book's dedicated to you.

Jean Norville: I know.

Peter Noll: How did that make you feel?

Jean Norville: It was the biggest honor that I've had from a student.

I taught for 35 years, so that means I say 100 a year, that's a lot of children.

I only had one book dedicated to me and it was from a very special person so it meant the world to me.

It has a special part, the book has a special place in my house.

It's almost like a altar.

Peter Noll: Where does it sit?

Jean Norville: It sits on my fireplace a hearth and it sits on an easel, because my little granddaughter likes to paint so I have an easel for her all the time so she could paint and it sits there with a flower beside it and my grand daughter opens it every time she comes and points to Shayla's picture and says, that's your girl and I say, yes, it is.

Peter Noll: So you taught her English in seventh and eighth grade?

Jean Norville: Seventh and eighth grade.

Peter Noll: Did you know she was going to do this, be television news anchor?

Jean Norville: No.

Peter Noll: What did you think she was going to do?

Jean Norville: Something wonderful.

But, when you've taught as many children and they do so many different things I knew she would be something great.

I think she may be the only television personality that I taught.

I've taught doctors and lawyers and very few teachers, but I just knew she'd be something great.

I never thought about her being on television or writing, I thought she might publish.

Because when I had her she wrote a poem and I said I'm going to get this published for you.

I don't know if Shayla still has the book, but I got it published and she was in the seventh or eighth grade at the time and I have the book at home.

Peter Noll: What do you remember most about Shayla, from that time seventh and eighth grade?

Jean Norville: Well, in a class of, I remember her class very well, of course, most of my classes were really good, I had a few that weren't really good but most of them were, her class was very good.

Shayla, I know she sat on the front row, because she always sat on the front row.

I have certain students that people know that that's where she's going to sit.

She was just a very good student.

Peter Noll: You must be so proud.

Linda Reaves: Very proud.

If her dad was still here he would be over the moon.

She's a daddy's girl.

If he was and she and the other thing I think that was so touching to me was she was able to read this poem that she turned into a book.

[NOISE] She was able to read that to him before he passed and she had written another one for him that she was able to read to him before he passed.

But he would just be so proud of her if he was here today as I'm.

Peter Noll: Do you hope she moves on from Minnesota to the network or do you think this is that?

What would you hope?

Linda Reaves: My preference, I like where she is, I like Minnesota, I like what she's doing now.

The community embraces her.

I think she's at a station now where she can grow, she can do some of the things that she like to do, as far as specials that she would like to put on the show so they've let her be really creative.

Peter Noll: Is she happy?

Linda Reaves: She's very happy.

I think this is the best as far as all of the places that she's ever worked, all of the states that she's at I think this is where she's been the most happy, her and her husband, he likes it there as well.

[LAUGHTER] Peter Noll: What do you miss most about Jackson when you're in Minnesota?

Shayla Reaves: I think there's just a comfort of home and I think it's the familiar relationships that you have when you're at home.

You just the people know you in a way when you're around family that you don't have to be on, you could just be yourself.

In a way that I think in television you have to sometimes be on.

Even though I'm really myself in most settings, I think there's a different level of comfort, I think the accent comes out a little more at home.

[LAUGHTER] Peter Noll: Are you like, is this it?

Is Minnesota your last stop or you're just in the moment?

Or do you have like the dream job like, I'm going to be a talk show host and be doing, moving to New York City?

Shayla Reaves: Well, it depends.

If you asked me that when I was 22 I thought I wanted to be in New York.

But now I think what's most important to me is to be happy and I look at Minnesota is the first place where I've really been able to entertain being still.

Because I've moved a lot and usually after a couple of years I'm thinking, whoa, what are we doing next?

And this is the first place where I've been able to be still.

My mom says, what's going on at work when I start posting a lot of craft projects and so I haven't been posting a lot of craft projects, so I've been extra busy, I guess.

Peter Noll: Let's talk about crafting.

That's like your passion.

Shayla Reaves: Yes, I like making things.

Peter Noll: I heard you make your own jewelry.

Shayla Reaves: Yes, I didn't make this one.

Maybe earrings.

Peter Noll: You make the earrings?

Shayla Reaves: Yes.

Peter Noll: Do you make your own clothes?

Shayla Reaves: I don't do the clothes, but I taught myself how to make jewelry.

Peter Noll: Do you sell it online?

Shayla Reaves: I do the earrings.

I've been giving a lot of stuff away.

I did do Etsy and I did that more in some of my other places, other markets.

But a lot of stuff I've been giving away and I make things for friends.

Peter Noll: I saw some story where you had like flags draped across to your kitchen or something.

You were making some project.

Shayla Reaves: Probably a banner.

I was making a big fabric banner, yes.

Peter Noll: Is it like you do it because you love doing it?

Is it relaxing to you?

Shayla Reaves: Yes, it is.

Crafting for me, I learned that when I feel stress, it's one of the things it helps me relax.

For a long time, just throughout life, when I would feel down, I would make really colorful vibrant things.

Then I would get myself back to feeling good, and then you would just tuck that away and then you would go back to life.

Then you would pull it back out again and then you craft again, then you would tuck it away.

Around 2018, 2019, I said, what happens if I craft all the time, whether I'm happy or sad?

Around 2018, 2019, I decided to more fully embrace what this is.

I just started crafting all the time and I found that I show up completely differently in the world when I'm fully embracing the things that are more in alignment with who I actually am.

As opposed to just treating them like this thing I just turned to when, I fell down, I'll go here, I fell down, I'll go here because even the things that I worry about are different when I'm thinking about what I'm going to make at the end of the day like, I have this great idea I'm going to make this, because you don't occupy space in the same way when you're thinking in alignment with your real passions and the things that you're genuinely interested in.

One of my co-workers had a birthday, so I made her a couple of picture frames and a key chain.

Then I just had lunch with a friend this past week and I made her a picture frame.

I'm making ornaments for my co-workers for the holidays, so I've been telling them about them since last year because I like to repurpose things or do mixed media stuff.

I bought the plate ornaments on clearance last year and so I have to finish doing the mixed media portion of the ornaments before it gets too cold in Minnesota and I can't paint outside.

I've been telling them about them since last January, your ornaments are coming.

I'm always making things but that for me is relaxing and comfort, even watching television.

I'll have my beads out and I'm just like making things.

My husband's like, see, you can relax, you don't have to do anything and I'm like, I'm relaxing.

I'm crafting and watching this show.

Peter Noll: You mentioned the weather the snow.

Shayla Reaves: Yes.

Peter Noll: When people from Tennessee, I'm from Minnesota, cold snow, how could you live there?

How can you live there?

Shayla Reaves: It's totally the people experience.

I'm having a really great people experience in Minnesota.

The cold is sidebar because Minnesota is definitely the coldest place that I've lived, but I'm having a great experience with the people and being supported doing the things that I enjoy just being supported.

As far as people in the community, I feel people have really not only embraced me and the work that I'm doing on television, but I feel that I've been able to do a good job creating space for different stories in the television space.

I do a lot of work as far as bridge building and try to build relationships with folks to bring new voices into the television space.

Then I want people to feel like that space is for them and this television space is for you too and so I'm constantly looking for what people in the community are doing and trying to find, this could be a fit for this show.

Then constantly trying to find, maybe this would be a great fit for your show.

I'm not just on television, but I'm also trying to figure out where the things that people are doing would fit in our space because not everyone has always felt that television was for them and so I'm trying to show people that this space is for you too.

Then seeking them out to show them, hey, this is maybe a great fit.

Then our industry is changing and people have so many different ways to consume media and trying to show people that maybe haven't always felt that maybe traditional television news was a space that fully represented them.

That hey, give us a chance we see you and I see this great thing that you're doing in the community.

I see you and give me a chance to connect what you're doing with our audience.

Peter Noll: What would you be doing if you weren't in television?

Shayla Reaves: I think if I was not in television, I don't know if I would be teaching.

I don't know if I want to do all those grading of papers.

That's a good question because that keeps changing for me, because I was literally just thinking the other day, I was wondering should I have not gone into, but if I would have wanted to learn more about marketing or still pursue something in the business space, public relations, something in that veil.

The one other topic I was just saying this week that I had an interest in and when I was in high school, was actually Ms. Ramer's class in biology and genetics totally different.

I think that was interesting.

But I remember when I used to apply for Governor's School in high school, I remember I took all this time filling out the Governor's school science application.

Then at the last minute I filled out the humanities one, did not get into sciences got into humanities.

I was like all the English, things always work out, but I do like things that are in the sciences, but I feel that all the English writing things have always panned out in my favor.

I feel whatever I'm supposed to be doing, it would still land me in the writing space.

One of the other things that I had an interested when I was in college and I had to make a decision about the track to pursue.

I did like print media design, but I was worried about being able to have a job in that because a lot of the magazines were folding at the time that I had to make a decision.

But I like the creative piece.

I was like, well, I don't want to not have a job.

I had to switch gears and I was like maybe broadcasting and my parents were worried about what's happened if this journalism thing doesn't work out.

I've continued to get jobs, so they stopped asking you if it was going to work out.

Peter Noll: How influential where your parents to deciding what you were doing?

Shayla Reaves: I am in a completely different realm from anything that they did.

My mom worked as a secretary, she had an associate's degree and then my dad, he retired from the post office.

What I'm doing is completely out of alignment with anything that they did, but they have always been very supportive of the things that I have wanted to do.

They have traveled to all the places, been to all the things, and always supported everything that I have put my mind to to do.

Even the things that they are like, what are we going to do if this doesn't work out.

For them like journalism is one of those things and I would imagine for a parent like your kids getting into something and you really don't know what this world is.

Peter Noll: Thinking you're going to be living in their base now.

Shayla Reaves: Yes, and Northwestern is not cheap.

You're doing these loans and you're going to school and you're studying the stuff.

Peter Noll: Like your dad worked overnights at the post office so he could bring you here to US channel.

He was the first one in line to pick you up.

Shayla Reaves: Yeah.

Sure was, in his little Nissan truck.

Peter Noll: Mrs. Norville, I talked to and she said that you would hug him in front of everyone, but most kids are embarrassed to do that and you were not.

Shayla Reaves: No.

Peter Noll: Tell me about that.

Shayla Reaves: Like my dad, he just was there for everything for all of life's moments, he was just for all of the things.

My dad would work overnights at the post office and then he would come home in the morning, and then he would fix oatmeal, breakfast for me, and then take me to school at his little pick up truck.

Then take my grandmother, when she was living he would take her to her doctor's appointments, do laundry and things around the house during the day while my mom would be at work.

Then he would pick me up, he might take a nap, pick me up from school in the afternoon.

My grandmother had things she needed to do during the day, he would take care of her and then go to sleep during the afternoon and then get up, do it again, go to work and follow that routine.

But he was always there, he would go to the sporting events and things as he could, but he was always just active and present and involved in all the things that I had going on and just calm but persistent presence.

Peter Noll: He passed recently?

How has that affected you?

Shayla Reaves: He was very excited about the book, so to actually hold the book in my hand, something that he was really excited to see.

It was really meaningful to see this through and know that something that he was connected to finally came to fruition.

It wasn't just this thing that we were talking about anymore, it was something that I realized.

When I went to New York and did the interview with Gail, I had his picture in my pocket.

Lover dress for pockets that would had a pocket, I had his picture in my pocket so that he was there with me in that moment.

I think that the journey that I'm on now, I don't think that here I could've imagined that this journey would have evolved in the way that it has.

Because I'm as emotional as I still am, that he's very much a part of it and he is very present at all the pieces and he's very proud.

It was very important to me as well before he passed because I didn't want him to leave the world feeling at any way like it his passing.

I was disappointed that I was let down or there was anything that left unsaid and I just wanted him to know that I knew how proud that he was of me, and I was able to share that with him in his last time here on Earth, his last week.

Even though he didn't get to hold this book in his hand, he feels very much a part of the journey that's unfolding now that it's in the world.

Just all the places that I'm going now and the places that I'll probably go beyond this moment.

I know that he's very much present in everything that I'm doing and that he's very much proud.

Peter Noll: You flew into Kinda Jackson last night?

Shayla Reaves: Yes.

Peter Noll: How often do you get home?

Shayla Reaves: I try to get home.

I'm excited next year because I've been there long enough to get an extra week of vacation.

Peter Noll: I love those years.

Shayla Reaves: Isn't that the best?

I get home maybe one or two times a year.

This is, I think, my second time home this year, I came for my mom's birthday in March.

I wish I could get home more, but this year my time was split up a lot with the book coming out, but now it's into the world.

So next year hopefully I get home a little more and I do want to come back and do some more things with students in schools.

This year I was here a couple of times.

Peter Noll: What's the first place you want to go when you come back to Jackson?

It's like I always got to go here and I get this.

Favorite place to go?

Shayla Reaves: If you asked me when I was in college, it was Chick-fil-A, because we didn't have that before.

Let me try to think, oh gosh, I don't have a favorite, I think more of it is seeing people.

I got to see my grandmother, she's one of the people that I always like to see when I come home, but she came to the airport with my mom.

I didn't get my grandmother visited, and so I probably will see a few more people between today and tomorrow.

Its's more for me, it's seeing people more than it necessarily is going to places, the place for me is home, obviously because the people are here.

That's the same thing with me in Minnesota, it's more of a people experience.

Peter Noll: Big differences in food.

Minnesota, Tennessee.

Shayla Reaves: Maybe.

I think you got a lot more Southern flavored out here.

Peter Noll: What do you miss about that?

Shayla Reaves: The fried chicken is a little more crispy.

The sweet tea is a little sweeter.

Peter Noll: I don't think I ever had sweet tea until I moved down here.

Shayla Reaves: Really?

Peter Noll: They don't have a lot of sweet tea.

When you order iced tea it's never sweet, down here, if you order iced tea, it's always sweet.

Shayla Reaves: Yes.

Peter Noll: If you say, can I get unsweet, they're like, you're not from around here.

Shayla Reaves: Yes.

What is your take on the sweet tea.

Peter Noll: It's very sweet.

The further south you get, there's none at the convenience stores along when you're road tripping.

They'll have sweet tea, super sweet tea, extra super sweet tea, and there's no unsweet tea.

Shayla Reaves: Yes.

It's literally a taste of home for sure.

Peter Noll: We would like to thank Shayla, her mom Linda, and her teacher, Mrs. Norville, who inspired her.

We also want to thank the great people here at USJ for hosting us, and we want to thank you for watching and our many members whose donations make our local programs like Spotlight 11 possible.

This is Peter Noll, reminding you to put the spotlight in your life.

MALE_6: This program you've been watching was made possible through the generous financial support of West TN PBS viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.