Group 3

Our Interview 

Each weekday Sarah Cochran comes to the same office.Ms.Cochran office is as welcoming as her.She painted the walls a light blue reminiscent of the sky on  a clear sunny day.The walls  accompanied The soft hum of the airpurfier and ambiance of  the faint but noticeable instrumental music playing continuously. Her space is all tied together with a couch that you could sink into and a smaller table that sits more of the students she cares for so much. This has been Mrs.Cochran’s home for nearly the last five months, but before these past five months her life and daily routine looked quite different.

As the co-owner of a restaurant, she often worked 80 hour weeks. Her office was the grimy floor of the restaurant, her desk was the bar lined with people, and her instead of meeting with students, she met with the wave of customers. Going from a restaurant to Furman was a big shift yet Sarah takes it in stride. Owning Bar Margaret felt like a dream come true to Sarah, it was all she ever wanted. After working for years in food and beverage, it felt like a culmination of all her work. 

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It became a favorite among many in downtown Greenville, it quickly became rated 5 stars on Google Reviews.  

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However soon after opening her relationship with her business partner turned sour. Sarah remembers this experience, “He was difficult and we definitely ran into, but it had a lot. We tried to do business counseling. All the stuff.” She began working eighty hour weeks and was in constant conflict with her partner. It all came to a head almost a year ago, “It just got to reach the point where my mental health was worth more than what I was doing. And at the same time. My mother had cancer again and she was my childcare. And so the way I was able to do what I was doing was because I had help.” 

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Sarah ends up stepping away from the business for a few months picking up shifts at friends bars and even work-shopping a gay bar. Her gay bar idea ultimately fails and she becomes a board member of the Upstate LGBT Chamber of Commerce. This leads her to working a booth at Pride Downtown where she meets Dr. Casey, “So I was working the booth for that and doctor Casey, who is the WS director, happened to approach the table and was like hi. And she just moved here like 2 days ago. I'm the director of women's Sexuality studies program at Furman. I'd love to like chat sometime.” Urged on by Dr. Casey Sarah applies to work with the Women’s gender and sexuality studies program at Furman. While it was a major change, she says that the job has been great for her, “And it's weirdly turned out to be really perfect for me. It kind of combines all the things that I enjoy.”

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Owning and running Bar Margaret, yes, fulfilled a dream and a passion, but Sarah was hurting inside. Years of conflict and immense stress slowly chipped away at Sarah’s mental health. After admitting she has , “gotten so much healthier in the past year and a half” Sarah is living her most stable life. Education has brought her serenity, structure and a space to “ kind of process through some of the trauma of being a business owner as well”. We left Sarah’s well-organized office convinced she had found her own seat at the table. Her own table.