Shannon Earley, Neighbor

Except for a wondrous four-month period in which she resided in London, Shannon Earley has lived in Elmhurst her entire life.

During her 22 years of residency, Shannon has participated in the pet parade and subsequently featured on the front page of the Elmhurst Press, smiling in all her chubby, adolescent glory with a tortoise; mourned, and continues to lament, the closing of the legendary Chocolate Moon; and walked the halls of the behemoth new York High School when it first opened.

Shannon helped create editions of York High School's literary magazine, Mirrors, and published two poems, which she finds painful to revisit, within its pages. After graduating from York in 2006, Shannon entered college with a focus in Art Education, but found herself constantly gravitating towards her first love: the written word.

She contributed to North Central's award-winning student newspaper, The Chronicle. She was nominated for the 2009 Illinois College Press Association and, along with several of her fellow student journalists, received an honorable mention for a collection of stories about the college during a recession. She graduated in June 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Print Journalism.

She drinks an inordinate amount of coffee daily, avoids arithmetic at all costs, and aspires to be Lois Lane.