*

Mia Pohlman

Mia Pohlman is a writer for rustmedia, producing content for Flourish Magazine, B Magazine, TBY and Mind + Body.

Reflections on becoming

Saturday, August 1, 2020

I remember the first time I heard Taylor Swift. I was 15, driving on Mount Auburn Road in Cape with my best friend who was newly 16. It was dark outside. "There's this girl named Taylor Swift ..." as she put in the CD. We listened to "Teardrops on My Guitar" first. As I heard the lyrics sung by a girl around my age about the pain of being overlooked, it was the first time I felt my experiences given voice, publicly validated. I didn't have to pretend to relate to an adult world I heard on the radio; someone was singing about these things I knew, too. Maybe it mattered. Maybe, so did I.

To continue reading
For more than 115 years, the Southeast Missourian has written the first draft of local history. We have aspired to enrich, entertain, educate and inform. Our core values have remained firm: truth, service, quality, integrity and community. Support our mission.