September 11, 2019

Meet Mary Foley of Meanwhile With in Arcadia

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Foley.

Mary , please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was in eighth grade when I read “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” for the first time and suddenly, it had become a lifeline for me. For a long time – even now – I consider it to be one of my favorite books. “Perks” opened up many aspects of my life such as how to navigate being a young teen, introducing me to The Smiths, and sparking a love of reading that I didn’t know that I had. My sophomore year of high school entailed a rather challenging English class, but I loved it. It was then that I realized that my love of reading began to encompass a love for writing. Since then, I’ve often daydreamed about a series of published novels or a collection of short poems.

By the time I had moved to Flagstaff for college, I had decided to be a nursing major. Writing didn’t seem incredibly practical at the time and I was encouraged to pursue a career in the medical field. Not even two weeks into my first year of college, the stars aligned and I won passes to a screening of the film adaptation of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Not only would I have the chance to relive junior high, but I would also be able to meet the author behind the book that catapulted me into a love of literature. The film was a dream, and meeting Stephen Chbosky himself made me realize that I wanted to spread my love of literature.

And so, I dropped out of my nursing prerequisites and signed up for my very first education course.

I had hoped to pursue a Secondary Education degree, wanting to teach high school English just like that class that challenged me in the best way possible. However, I quickly realized that I didn’t have the backbone for older students and switched my major once more to Elementary Education. It’s been just over four years since I’ve graduated from Northern Arizona University and after about three years of teaching, I currently work in educational administration!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Getting to where I am today certainly hasn’t been a smooth road. There were many hurdles that mentally exhausted me to the point where I lost myself for a good while. I feel like I definitely didn’t have the typical college experience in the sense that I didn’t attend sporting events or other community building activities because I was either studying or working enough hours to afford rent. The cycle was really draining for me but I’m incredibly lucky to have people in my life who were able to ground me, even to this day.

Meanwhile With – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
By day, I work in education administration but by night I am a beauty fiend. I started my Instagram page, @meanwhilewith, because I enjoyed talking about beauty products. It seems like a really strange jump, talking about my background in education to beauty habits but to me, it makes sense. I moved into education because I wanted to spread an interest in something I enjoyed and wanted to teach others about it. Meanwhile With is an extension of that, just with a different topic.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
In terms of working in a school, I certainly think that the proudest moment of my career was being offered the administration position that I currently hold. It was something that I had hoped for since I began working at my school, and I feel like my hard work had finally paid off. In terms of Meanwhile With, I feel proud with the content that I create and that it had enabled me to work alongside other creators and brands!

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