I personally identify as an Alabamian and choosing to come to school in Mississippi was an interesting choice in my family. I do recognize that my experiences in Oxford are only based on the four short year that I have been here (and only in nine month segments at a time). As a student life in Oxford is different and while papers and class can be overwhelming in the end I go home to a different state. That does not, as I am often reminded, mean that what I do and what happen in Mississippi does not affect me or vice versa. 

       To me Oxford is primarily the town outside of the University bubble. When I think of Oxford I picture the community of people that have been here since before I was born. I think Oxford is a tight-knit community that has been permeated by the university on almost every level and as a student those are the parts that I am most familiar. Primary and secondary schools here in Oxford are some of the best in the state and, from the outside looking in, I would say that is a direct result of the Oxford community attracted by the University. On the other hand, this is Mississippi and there are poverty and other challenges here too.

      The challenges of the area are not removed from the context of area history or regional commonality. Poverty, hunger, drugs, low socioeconomic mobility both in terms of class and geography are only a few of the problems faced by people in Oxford. I think that is why it is so important to capture the invisible Oxford, because the outside perception, at least for me, was of a thriving university community with wealthy benefactors. There is a lot of truth to that perception; however, it does not cover the Mississippians themselves as a whole. There is no one way to categorize an area that deals with racism, has such a wide variety of diversity, and contains individual of all backgrounds growing and succeeding in so many different ways.

      The challenges that I have personally faced and witnessed in Oxford have mainly occurred from within the University, but so have the biggest benefits. The biggest benefit overall, for me, has been the range of experiences and people that I have been able to interact with at the University. College in general is where I believe many people have the benefit of experiencing diversity on a personal level and that is the biggest benefit of Oxford to me.

      More specifically on Oxford as a place and space that I have occupied, I think that Oxford is both challenged and benefited by the small town size and the opportunities made available due to that size. For example, there is not a Target or a Michael's within forty-five miles of Oxford (which took some getting used to when I first became a student in 2013). The benefit of the town size has allowed many small businesses to flourish and, while your budget is going to have to grow a little, the comfort of having something unique is also worth experiencing. Networking and relationships within the community and at the University are another double-sided benefit. The community of Oxford both outside of and within the University are so connected it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. The amount of change, time, or challenges experienced in places like Oxford is directly correlated to the number of relationships fostered and nurtured. The ways in which that plays out in real life can be brutally harsh or wonderfully successful and because of the connections within the area references are never far out of reach.

- Martha Grace