All roads lead to Greenwood for Derek and Elizabeth Hinckley.
The couple have a strong sense of purpose in the Mississippi Delta, intertwined in a community where the familiarity associated with a small town has become a comfort.
Twists and turns were needed for the couple to realize they had this feeling in Greenwood and for the longing to live elsewhere to dissipate.
“I’d realized that I enjoyed the connectedness that comes from the layers of relationships that you have in a small town,” Elizabeth said. “Because that was one of the things that was hard for me when I first moved here, is feeling like I didn’t have any privacy.”
Derek and Elizabeth met at Amanda Elzy High School after joining Teach for America in 2009. The two clicked right away and started dating in December during their first semester at the school.
Elizabeth taught algebra while Derek handled English. Their reasons for becoming TFA corps members were also opposites.
A California native, Derek wanted to attend law school at a prestigious university, but his LSAT scores and GPA put him on the outside looking in. He joined the teaching program to improve his admission chances.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth was enrolled at Northwestern University, staying close to the suburbs of Chicago, where she grew up, but didn’t have a career path picked out. She became a Christian as a junior, which led to a seismic shift in her life.
She was invited to a spring service mission called the Chicago Urban Program, which partners with churches and neighborhoods that need assistance.
She listened to panel discussions during which workers would tell stories about serving low-income communities in the Chicago area. A certain career stood out from the rest.
“I left just really convinced that teaching was going to be the most important way to make a difference,” Elizabeth said.
Learning how to teach on the job while adjusting to a new place brought many challenges for the couple, but it helped them relate and grow their relationship. The friendliness of a small town was both unfamiliar and a bit confusing for the outsiders.
“The first time someone waved at me while driving, I thought they were trying to flag me down, like ‘Help me!’” Elizabeth said. “Because that’s why you’d wave at a car where I’m from.”
The couple rarely interacted with anyone socially outside of other TFA members. The temporary nature of the program lessened the need for them to make any meaningful connections in the community.
The one exception was the decision to become members at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Derek was not a Christian when the couple met but was baptized at the church.
They got married at the church in June 2012 before leaving town so Derek could pursue a master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
“I applied to 12 schools, was admitted to three, and Alaska gave me a full-ride scholarship plus a living stipend,” Derek said. “It was just the reasonable choice.”
Derek applied for the scholarship after hearing one of his undergraduate professors at Colgate University, Jennifer Brice, speak highly of the program in Fairbanks.
A dry cabin, which is a small home without running water, was where they stayed for the first year.
“It was like 600 square feet, over two stories, little A-frame cabin that we lived in,” Derek said. “It had an outhouse; there was a sink, but you had to bring your own water to it, and the sink just drained into a 5-gallon bucket underneath that you had to remember to empty.”
“It was a bit of a crash landing into Alaska living,” Derek said.
Although the living situation was different, they loved their time in the Last Frontier. They explored the nature of the state through hiking, camping, fishing and hunting.
Elizabeth worked for an organization that did foster care placements, which led to their desire to be foster parents themselves. The only problem was cabin-living didn’t leave enough room.
Friends from Fairbanks Radiant Church opened up the top floor of their traditional house next to the army base so the Hinckleys had space to foster.
“We had a couple foster kids while we were there for about a year; then we moved out on our own eventually,” Derek said.
“Because I was about to have our first child,” Elizabeth continued.
The fostering experience helped the Hinckleys realize that they wanted to start their family at that point.
“I don’t think we would have had kids as soon if we hadn’t fostered and been like, ‘Oh yeah, we want to do this!’” Elizabeth said.
Their first child, Eleanor, was born in December 2014 while the Hinckleys were still in Alaska. They started having conversations about moving back to the “lower 48” to be closer to friends and family shortly after.
Elizabeth took a job offer in Greenwood, an administrative role at Delta Streets Academy, and they moved back to where their relationship started.
“I think it was exciting,” Derek said. “It’s a place where we had a shared history together, and so it just made sense in a lot of ways. It felt like somewhere where we knew what we were getting into.”
Community involvement became more of a priority during their second stint in Greenwood, which lasted about five years.
There were only remnants of their TFA social group that decided to stay in Greenwood long term, forcing the couple to find new connections.
Westminster Presbyterian was the most natural choice. Elizabeth got more involved with various ministries, and Derek became an elder of the church.
“The second time around just felt a lot more grounded and rooted,” said Derek, who stayed at home with Eleanor while teaching online composition courses. Elizabeth changed jobs to teach at Greenwood Middle School after a year at Delta Streets.
The roles were reversed when their second child, Cecilia, was born in 2017. Elizabeth stayed at home, working various part-time jobs, while Derek became the recycling coordinator for Greenwood.
“One of the things I liked most about the recycling position was just getting to know different people, businesses throughout the community, and just being more visible,” Derek said.
“I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was something I could do that I felt interested in, passionate about,” Derek said. “But longer term, I had hoped to get into higher education teaching.”
That opportunity presented itself after a year as Derek joined Mississippi Delta Community College to teach composition and literature classes.
Still, the thought of something better picked at his mind. Derek didn’t see Greenwood as a forever home, instead feeling like there was one foot in, one foot out.
“I’d always imagined myself as somebody who lived in urban environments,” he said.
After years of throwing out applications, a teaching opportunity popped up in Chicago. If Greenwood wasn’t a permanent option, Chicago seemed like the most natural fit with Elizabeth’s previous connections.
“It was not what I expected,” Derek said of their two-year stay in Chicago.
There were the traditional perks of a big city that the family enjoyed — walking to White Sox games, short trips to the beaches of Lake Michigan, a variety of museums, aquariums and parks and so much interesting cuisine — but it couldn’t replace the sense of community that only a small town can provide.
“It was very hard to maintain relationships with people, even if somebody lived 6 to 8 miles away. It could take an hour to get there, depending on traffic,” Derek said. “Maintaining an active social life often felt like it required a lot of advanced planning.”
They talked to friends in Chicago about the “disconnectedness” they were feeling and found that it was a normal condition there. The younger versions of Derek and Elizabeth would probably have accepted it, too.
“I think we realized some of the things we’d gotten used to in Greenwood were things that we preferred,” Elizabeth said.
The time spent in Chicago helped Derek realize that there were challenges everywhere and that he could be content among the towering skyscrapers or the flat farmlands.
The family moved back to Greenwood in 2022, while Elizabeth was pregnant with their third child, Josephine. They had their fourth child, Wendell, in 2024.
Derek is the director of K-12 education at Delta Streets Academy, and Elizabeth runs an education consulting business and also works for Delta Design Build Workshop.
“When we were living here the second time, I would go through what I call my quarterly existential crisis, like, ‘What am I doing here?’” Derek said. “I don’t experience that anymore the third time around, so I feel much more at ease.”
There have been no regrets about the move back to Greenwood, even during their most recent trip to Chicago to visit with friends, staying in their old neighborhood.
“There’s no wondering whether there’s really somewhere that’s going to be better or easier or more fun,” Elizabeth said. “I think we have a strong sense of purpose and place here, which is nice.”
- This article first appeared in Leflore Illustrated, a quarterly magazine published by The Greenwood Commonwealth.
