“Life has a way of taking each of us down different paths, filled with both beautiful moments and difficult challenges that shape who we become. Through everything life brings, I believe one of the most important things we can offer others is kindness. Kindness is free; yet, it can mean the world to someone who may be going through struggles we cannot see. Every person we meet carries their own story, their own experiences, and their own battles that have helped shape who they are or who they are trying to become,” advised Candice Freeman. “Because of that, I believe it is important to always look at both sides of a situation and try to understand where someone else may be coming from. We may not always agree, and life may not always feel fair, but when we approach others with patience, compassion, and an open heart, we create more understanding in the world around us. Faith has always been an important part of my life, and putting God first reminds me that even during the hardest days there is always purpose and strength to keep moving forward. Life does not always guarantee that we will come out on top, but there is peace in knowing that you treated others with kindness and stayed true to the person you want to be. No matter what life brings, never give up, because you never truly know when your strength, your faith, or your kindness may be the very thing that helps someone else keep going.”
Candice Freeman always tries to have empathy for everyone around her and to see things from their perspective whenever possible. She prefers to understand every aspect of a situation and the motives behind different decisions before she rushes in to judge someone.
One of the biggest influences on her life and her beliefs has been her family. No matter what, her relationship with her family is something that she cherishes.
“I’m very family oriented,” declared Candice. “I love Sunday family time. I love being around my family. That’s something that I’ve always had; we’ve always been family oriented. My family is one of the ones where you may fight, but you talk it out before you leave. You don’t go home mad. That’s always been a big part of me, and I think that’s why I am the way I am. I come from a good family.”
Of course, being with her family and the things she would always do growing up make up some of her favorite memories.
“Some of my favorite childhood memories were with my grandparents. Stuff was different then,” Candice reminisced. “If I could go back in time, I’d wish I was in the 1800s or 1980s or something years ago when people did stuff like picking crops on the farm and stuff. A lot of my memories are gardening with my grandparents and just playing in the yard with my cousins. Stuff was simpler back then. I remember making a little pole and using it to pick the little crawfish out of the holes. That was my favorite thing ever to do in the summertime. I remember picking in the garden. It was something we always had to do. I remember making Play Doh peanut butter. You played with the peanut butter and then ate it. It sounds disgusting, but it was one of my favorites. We would sit outside and play board games. You didn’t go inside during the summertime. It didn’t matter if there was a storm. They’d lock you out, and if you open the door more than once you’d get torn up. My great grandmother was a preacher, and I remember we used to sneak in her house when she was outside because she loved to rake. We’d sneak in her house and play hide and seek in her house. If she found us, she would tear us up. If you asked her for something to drink, you better go outside and drink some water out of the hose because you weren’t coming in her house during the summertime while she was outside raking. You were outside. It didn’t matter.”
Of course, she was never bad, but she did get into a little mischief when she was growing up.
“Mama and daddy built a house up on a hill, and our front porch connected to my bedroom. Anytime they sent us outside and we got in trouble, they would put us in our bedrooms. My brother’s room was right across the hall from mine, and we would wait until our parents went to sleep at night. We’d act like we were asleep and put my window up and go out the window. We had a me and my buddy dirt bike that we would push off the porch or roll down the hill, and we’d just go riding all night. I don’t know how we never got caught,” remembered Candice. “We got out there one time, and I ran into the side of my grandma’s house. She had some big elephant ears, and I ran over them and killed every one of them. Of course, I lied and said it was my brother. They were so mad. I even ran into the house that day when I did it, and I still told them it was Dale. He got torn up.”
That definitely wasn’t the only time she showed that special sibling love and caused her brother to get in trouble. There were very few times that she was in trouble.
“I threw a bat through a wall and blamed it on him,” continued Candice. “Mom and dad had just painted the whole house. There was fresh paint trim across the wall, and they told me if that I threw the bat hard that it would go through the wall. I threw that little brown wooden Braves bat right through that wall. He got torn up for that, too. He took so many little whoopings for me and didn’t even argue about it because I was the only girl and never got in trouble. My grandma had a fly flap and would hit everybody around me but never touched me. I can only remember one time I got a spanking, and it wasn’t even my mama and daddy. It was my uncle. I was picking up cigarette butts out of the yard and putting them in the little crate on the front of my bicycle. I wasn’t the one who smoked them. I was just picking them up and cleaning up the yard. He saw me doing that and tore me up. That’s the only spanking I can ever remember getting. I was a good kid.”
She was very athletic when she attended school, and she is still involved with sports thanks to her family.
“I was in band and played the flute. I played it all through junior high and was in the color guard at Quitman when I got to the high school,” recalled Candice. “I played softball when I was in school. My husband played baseball and football. Now, my son loves football, too, and my girls play softball. That’s our hobby. We’re just a sports family.”
Deciding what she wanted to do as a career ended up proving to be more difficult than she anticipated. She was struggling to figure out exactly what route she wanted to take. Despite that, she still managed to take some classes to gain certification in one career before she even graduated from high school in 2015.
“I got my CNA license before I ever graduated,” stated Candice. “I took night classes down here at the VOTEC while I was in high school. I took allied health at school and then took night classes after hours. I never did anything with it though.”
When she did graduate high school, she went straight to school to get a degree in something outside of the medical field. She quickly decided it wasn’t for her and only uses what she learned on rare occasions.
“I graduated and went straight to hair school. I didn’t even take the summer off,” continued Candice. “I didn’t really care for hair school, but I went. I didn’t like it, but I passed it. For some reason, the hair broke me out so badly when I was cutting it. I just couldn’t stand being there and didn’t like it. Every once in a while, somebody will ask me to do something with their hair and I’ll do it, but other than that it isn’t for me.”
She did attain certification in another area and started a job that was involved in the medical field.
“I took a six week course and got certified in phlebotomy, but I never actually used that,” informed Candice. “I worked for the pain clinic in Meridian for nine years and did everything except use that phlebotomy certification. I went through the course to have that extra credit, but I never used it. I worked for a doctor that had a lot going on, and after being there for nine years had to get away from it. I wanted to have something that was closer to home. I was tired of driving to Meridian every day.”
Eventually, she managed to find a job closer to home, but she quickly learned it wasn’t something that she wanted to continue doing. It did cause her to attain a new skill that she still uses sometimes as a hobby.
“I got an offer to work in the eye clinic, and I worked in the CEO office,” continued Candice. “That wasn’t for me. I didn’t like that at all. People may say that it’s still medical, but vision is a completely different thing from medical. I was at the eye clinic for about two months. I decided I was going to come home, and honestly I was going to go into digital marketing. I took two courses online for digital marketing, and I still do that sometimes. I draw t-shirt designs and stuff like that when people ask me.”
It ended up leading her to her current job.
“Now, I work here at the courthouse,” expressed Candice. “I work for the tax collector’s office in the front with the car tags. We stay busy all the time. I like it over there. I see everybody that comes in. I’m a people person, so it makes it easy for me to get along with everyone.”
There is one career path that she has a passion for, but she hasn’t been able to complete her degree in it yet. One day, she would like to return to school and finish her degree to attain her dream job.
“I’ve always loved to help people, especially elderly people. From the time I was a little girl, I always said I was going to be a nurse. I played doctor all the time. I was just drawn to it and love it,” proclaimed Candice. “Originally, I wanted to be an OB nurse, and I was dead set on that. When my grandma was passing away and was in ICU, I thought I might want to do that instead. I was just so undecided on what I wanted to do that I never went and finished that degree. Then, I had kids and just never went back to finish it. That’s probably what I will finish one day if I ever go back to school.”
No matter what she does, she tries to make a positive impact on those around her. She always tries to provide encouragement and understanding to everyone that she sees and will continue to do everything she can to bring a little more joy to those around her.
