Freshman Tess Patton wins city’s essay contest

As a part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the city of Mountain Brook opened a writing contest with the theme “Why I Love Mountain Brook.” Tess Patton, a ninth-grader at Mountain Brook Junior High, was announced as the winner.

As an advanced English student, Patton said English is one of her favorite subjects, and she enjoys writing, especially fiction, realistic fiction or in a personal essay style. For this competition, she chose to write about some of her favorite memories and influences from the community.

Patton started her essay recalling when she and her family moved to Mountain Brook in 2007 and she entered Crestline Elementary. 

She called that time “some of the best years in [her] life” and credits Crestline to helping her grow into the person she is today. Patton continued to discuss how the Mountain Brook community led her to give more time toward community service and mentioned how valuable the sense of safety is throughout the villages. 

In closing, she said she is grateful for the community-wide support Mountain Brook shares for its residents and grateful to live in Mountain Brook.

“I just kind of looked back on my experiences from my time that I lived in Mountain Brook,” Patton said.

While she said at first the prompt wasn’t something that normally comes to mind, once she started writing, everything flowed naturally.

“I kind of got in the groove and made it my own,” Patton said.

As the prize for winning the essay contest, Tess will cut the anniversary ribbon on Ma 7 and be Mayor for the Day on May 8 as part of the 75th birthday celebrations. During her day, she will shadow Mayor Stewart Welch, sit in his seat at City Council that evening and read a proclamation.

“I don’t really know what [being the leader of a city] entails, so that’ll be really interesting to learn,” Patton said.