Interview by Gainesville High School seniors and Abernathy Cochran interns: John Jessup and Anna Kate Embry
Meet Mary Margaret Godley! Mary Margaret is the area director for Young Life in Gainesville. She moved to Gainesville to take the position a year and a half ago. Mary Margaret says she loves working with teenagers through her position with Young Life.
We want to thank Mary Margaret for telling us more about her life and love of Hall County.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your family.
A: “I’m single. It’s just me and a black lab puppy, her name is Poppy. So, if we were to talk about my immediate family, it’s her. I have a godson who’s three, he lives in Alabama. And then I have four nephews that I love a lot, and they’re all in North Carolina.”
Q: Please tell us about your current career. What do you love most about what you do?
A: “I’m the area director for Young Life. I have worked for Young Life for 15 years, and have been in Savannah and Auburn, Ala. for 10 years. And then Young Life asked me to move here 2021. I’ve been here for a year and a half. What do I love most about my career? Probably working with high school students because I think they are the greatest thing in the whole world. I love that sometimes my job is to get to hang out with high school students.”
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
A: “I love Sweet Magnolia’s. Dharma was like the sweetest, warmest person. My go-to is the BLT with avocado. I didn’t have an office when I first moved here and so I hung out there every day for two or three weeks. I also love El Tepache and The Chattahoochee Grill.”
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
A: “A year and a half. I bought a house without seeing it in real life, over FaceTime…I was like, well I’ll take it.”
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
A: “Amy Johnson Cooley. She’s maybe the most interesting person, and maybe who I’d want to be more like.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
A: “Somewhere warm and tropical where I can land on a beach and read a book.”
Q: What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
A: “I love ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ It’s one of my favorite movies. I just got back from England and we got to see some of the older film sites. And then, this is creepy, but my most recent TV show binge is ‘Bones.’”
Q: What advice would you want to give or leave with people?
A: “We live in this constant state of moving from one person to the next or one thing to the next. And I think in order to really get to know and love someone, you have to spend a lot of time with them.”
Q: If you could choose anyone that’s alive today and not a relative, with whom would you love to have lunch. And why and where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?
A: “I would want to take the Today Show hosts to lunch. I love The Today Show hosts Jenna, Savannah, Hoda, Sheinelle, Al, Craig Melvin, and Dylan Dreyer.”
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
A: “I love that where I live I can walk just about anywhere, I think that’s really sweet.”
Q: What’s something you hope our community has or does in the future?
A: “I think we’re doing a great job with bringing some new fun restaurants in town. But would love to see more of that. I am really impressed by the parks and playgrounds and places to walk so keep doing that. Vision 2030 is doing a great job.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
A: “This is going to be pretty vague, being true to my calling of where I’m supposed to be with Young Life with high school people so that could be here in Gainesville or it could be wherever Young Life puts me.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “I’m thinking like an African safari.”
Q: What is something that you have been proud to check off your bucket?
A: “I would say, what I am proud about checking off my bucket list would be, I’ve done all these milestone things as a single woman. Of course, I desire a partner in life, but I think a lot of times there’s this stigma that you can’t do things as a single woman. So I bought a house, I sold a house…you know, things that are a lot of pressure.”
Q: What is your go to band when you cant decide what to listen to?
A: “Taylor Swift, she stays on repeat at all times. I got a ticket to her Eras concert.”
Q: In hard times we can sometimes see and recognize greatness in those around us. Hardworking, positive attitudes, helping on the front lines. Who’s one of our local shining lights today?
A: “…I would say a Young Life leader is a shining light in our community, and that’s because they show up when a high school, middle school person needs them.”
Q: Who would you want to play you in a movie about your life?
A: “You know who I love so much? Melissa McCarthy. She’s funny and crazy. I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease right around the same time that ‘Bridesmaids’ came out. And I didn’t want to acknowledge that I had this disease, so I decided to call it Megan after her character in Bridesmaids.”
Q: What is one or two of your favorite smells?
A: “I love a men’s deodorant Degree. It has a distinct smell. And when a man walks past, I can smell and I know that’s it. And then I only burn two candles in my house: Volcano or Frasier Fir.”
Q: Who inspires you to be better?
A: “I would say probably someone that challenges me to be better is one of my best friends, her name is Terri. She speaks a lot of truth into my life, which is awesome.”
Q: What is one of your favorite Bible verses?
A: “Psalm 139: 11-12. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.’ And I think about that like in my life and I think things are too hard or dark, that darkness is not dark to the Lord.”
