Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1523410
42 maconmagazine.com | June/July 2024 she snagged a degree in Songwriting and English Literature and began to come out of her shell, as both a person and a performer. Although Nashville and her time there was a monumental part of her growth, it wasn't until she relocated to Brooklyn that the singer- songwriter felt the push to truly dig deeper into herself and begin that arduous process of learning and unlearning needed to fully find yourself – but also to love the person you end up finding. "I don't really feel like I liked myself and knew myself, and could live with myself in a way that felt good to me until, not even five years ago, three, four years ago, two years ago. I feel like I'm just now actually happy with the person that I am for the first time ever," she explained. Much credit must be given to good ol' age and time, but also what Scott wisely observed as the "ego death." "You just realize you're not the only fucking person in the world," she said. "I feel like the ego death is real. The ego has to fizzle or be drained a bit to start recognizing that. A lot of people have empathy early on, but for me, it sort of took a long time to just get outside of myself. I think it was because I was fighting so many internal battles for so long that the focus really was just on surviving and becoming the best person that I could be. Now, I'm just starting to enjoy my life because I'm not so self-centered, if that makes sense. It takes the pressure off." Finding real, abiding love certainly wasn't hurtful to unlearning – of finding the bravery to say that you need to be seen, loved, and accepted for who you are, and not quietly, but loudly. Her own journey towards true authenticity began here in Macon around the age of eight, when she said she first realized that her innate creativity came with an extra-hefty dose of ambition and drive. "I was just dreaming all the time," she recalled, smiling shyly. "I was really dreaming of having a life that had never been presented to me as an option." Scott said that she was lucky enough to have parents who really encouraged a whole range of activities for her. Sports, acting, singing in the church, and participating in the plays there were all part of her upbringing. Her folks also encouraged musical instruments. She took piano lessons, played flute in the school band at First Presbyterian Day School, and eventually picked up the guitar. But those activities were just a warm-up. Her sights were set on something much bigger. "I was really dreaming of pop stardom. I was like, 'I want to be Britney Spears!'" she blurted out, this time with a wisecracking laugh. "I want to be the Backstreet Boys. I would lock myself in my room and put on the show in the mirror, which kind of everyone does that, I think, but inside I was like, 'No, but really…I want to do this!'" Cut to moving to Nashville to tackle Belmont University and its prestigious School of Music, where