MERIDIAN —     Charity Hopson is a 26-year-old college student and single mother who keeps a full time job.

    Needless to say she is a very busy lady.

    A resident of Porterville in Kemper County, Hopson is a 2006 graduate of Kemper County High School. She is currently a business management major at Meridian Community College and will in the summer continue her education at the University of West Alabama in Livingston, Alabama. She will have a little more than a year left to get her degree but she is facing a little problem. She doesn't quite know yet just how she is going to use her newfound degree when she finally reaches that point. She can't make up her mind if she wants to work for someone else or start her own business.

    "I'm good at bossing people around," she said laughing. "But I'm sure there is more to business than that."

    Maybe she can start her own retail business. Maybe selling something that is near and dear to her heart — or more accurately — to her wallet.

    "I am a purse fanatic," she said, "I just can't walk by purses without buying one."

    In that sense she already has a ready made inventory. Hopson said she has about 100 purses at home. That would make for a good start on her store stock.

    "But I can't sell them," she said sheepishly. "I don't use them all but I don't want to part with them either. I love to shop until I drop."

    And when she does shop, Hopson said she is the one who everyone in the line behind her hates because she pulls out books of coupons. She said they can be a major pain to keep up with but in the end, for a single mother who is also a college student, saving every penny any way she can is important.

    One of he major aspects of Hopson's life does not give her a problem and that would come in the form of her 3-year-old son Isiah Hopson. Although she has been warned by family and friends that little boys never grow up and that they do get into a great deal of trouble, she hasn't seen it yet.

    "He is a doll and he loves Spiderman," Hopson said. "He just doesn't give me anything to worry about."

    Hopson's dream for her son is that he grows up to be respectable and successful.

    "I think that is what all mothers want out of their children. I would be happy with that and that is how I'm trying to bring him up," she said.

    Hopson admitted to having a bit of a romantic streak and loves to read romance novels whenever she can find a period of downtime from being a mother, student and employee.

    "I would love to go to Paris," Hopson said. "It is the city where romance is supposed to be isn't it? I think that would really be something to see, the city I've read so much about."

    Hopson said she is a giving and trusting sort, which is living up to her fist name. But she does realize that sometimes that free trust can be at a cost. So for her she has to pick and choose when to be charitable.

    "I don't do it because that is my name or anything. I do it because that is who I am. I wish the world were more charitable and forgiving of their fellow man. It would be much better wouldn't it?" she said.