By: Madison McKenzie
Who is Joe Dennis? A husband, a father, a Kesha fan man and fedora lover.
“I got my start in college when my Summer orientation leader said he needed a volleyball reporter and I had a crush on a girl who was on the team,” Joe said.
Joe got his start at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois as a volleyball reporter, with no background on the sport.That didn’t stop Joe from stepping up to the plate and hoping to talk to his crush.
After he had some time and practice, Joe eventually picked up journalism as a minor and you can tell his feeling toward it changed from “I don’t want to do it” to something he can say he enjoys. His long term professor and mentor at Grady College, Conrad Fink, whom he gives thank to.
“He really believed in me and my writing like no one ever has and he showed me how good I really am, and he said that I should really do this. He really believed in me,” Joe said.
His mentor gave him what he needed to hear in order to become the great writer he is today.
“When I was working in Monroe, on Tribune here in Georgia I interviewed this judge who was a local judge who needed a liver transplant, and so we continuously did story updates like every month,” Joe said “The way we started these updates was where he was on the waiting list for a liver transplant. So we did about four or five stories on him and just tracking how he declined each month and tying in to that the importance of organ donation in each story. And he died before he got the chance to get a liver transplant. I’ll never forget the day he died.”
This led him to become an organ donor. Joe believed that “there was no reason for this man to die.” He believes no one should have to wait to live life. Joe is a very caring person who is very in tune with his feelings.
Joe also picked up the new habit of cooking. Cooking dishes from his Filipino culture, he enjoys making a coconut dubbo, pancit and lumpia, which is Filipino egg rolls, and Filipino bbq. He recently asked his mom for new recipes from his culture.
“How much soy sauce do I need,” she says “Enough.” Joe responded “Well how much is enough?” His mom responded “Enough is enough.”
In addition to writing and cooking, he listens to Kesha in his spare time.
“She’s someone who I feel is very inspiring because of her history, she has really overcome a lot in her life and has persevered,” Joe said.
He gets pumped up by listening to the Kesha song “Blow” which, in his words, help him “dominate the day” and “get the party started.” He loves her lesser known songs as well, songs like “Raising Hell,” where he believes it’s a song about her standing up for her rights.
He mentions the song “Praying.”
“That song is just so emotional, so heartfelt. It’s a song where someone hurt her so deeply, she’s actually praying for that person so it just shows a lot of forgiveness.” Some things just resonate with Joe.
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