Messer looking to see the world
Editor’s Note: Franklin’s Future is a regular feature spotlighting a high school senior in Franklin County and what they have planned for life after graduation.
Eighteen-year-old McKenzie Messer has been busy during the past four years she has spent at Russellville High School.
The senior overachiever has spent the past three years on the RHS Marching Hundred majorette line and served this year as the captain.
She has also served as the president of Students Against Destructive Decisions, vice-president Future Teachers of America, treasurer of the National Honor Society, a member of Key Club and the RHS Show Choir, and she was selected as a member of the homecoming court.
Out of all these activities, Messer said she has probably enjoyed being on the majorette line the most.
“One of the great things about being a majorette is getting to wear the sparkly outfit,” Messer said with a laugh. “But I also love performing: looking up at the lights on Friday night and seeing the crowd. It has been a really fun experience.”
With all the activities she has been involved in, it’s no wonder Messer has made many friends, who she said she would miss once she graduated in May.
“I’ll miss getting to see my friends on a daily basis and getting to hang out with them,” Messer said. “I’ll also miss seeing my mom. She works here as the bookkeeper and she was working at RMS when I was there, so it’ll be strange not seeing her at school.”
One thing Messer said she would not miss is all the drama that inevitably lurks around every locker in high school.
“I’m hoping that will get better once I head for college,” she said.
And speaking of college, Messer has her sights set on Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama where she plans to move this fall.
“I have had family members who went to Alabama and I just love the campus,” Messer said. “Plus, I’m a big Alabama fan so this just seemed like the best decision for me.”
Messer said she’s excited for her new college experiences, but she said she’s also a little nervous, too.
“I think it will be fun to be in a bigger city and to try to learn how to be on my own,” she said. “But I’m a little nervous about the classes because I know it will be a big adjustment from what I’m used to in high school.”
Messer will have to live in a dorm room for at least the first year and she said she plans to room with a stranger as opposed to someone she already knows.
“There are a few people from Russellville that I know who are going to Alabama in the fall, too, but I want to live with someone different just to have that experience,” she said. “I’m looking forward to meeting new people.”
While attending UA, Messer plans to major in accounting and international business, a decision that was inspired by her uncle.
“My uncle is the president of a company in California and he does business in China,” Messer said. “I think that would be such an interesting career to have, and I plan on visiting him in China this summer just to see how everything works.”
Messer said she would like to have a career where she could support herself and be able to travel and see new places.
“Several years down the road I see myself living in Birmingham or a bigger city and doing business in Shanghai,” she said. “It will be fun to have a career that lets you experience new cultures.”
Messer said her uncle mainly uses interpreters when he goes on overseas business trips, but she said she’d like to try to learn the language herself.
Messer is an only child and she said her parents, Stanley and Carol Messer, will definitely miss her.
“They’ll be upset when I move to Tuscaloosa,” she said with a smile. “But they’ll come to visit and I’ll come back home to visit, too, so maybe it won’t be too hard on them.”
