The Story of Their Life: Sydney Sullivan

 Corporate to Creativity. Christianity and OCD. Her Story. 

Preface

The young, 23-year-old Sydney Sullivan walked into the coffee shop, feeling a cool breeze of fresh air, compared to the simmering heat of the parking lot soaking in the Arkansas sun. With a smile, a blue and white dress, and long brunette hair, she took a seat in the back corner across from where I had set up shop. For a brief moment, we caught up, not having seen each other in a year.  

Then, I started my recorder and began the first interview of The Story of Their Life. 

Early Life

The “weird” city of Austin is her home, she expresses, but soon corrects herself. Her birthplace is Dripping Springs, Texas, a town on the outskirts of Austin, and a current population of 8,600 people. Dripping Springs, a rural town, was a quiet, hidden beauty, but a 35-minute commute to school every day. 

In the early morning hours, she and her three siblings—her younger sister, and the youngest, her brother —hopped into her mother’s car. Her family, or rather her best friends. Her mother inserted a disk into the CD player, and the voices of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, Veggie Tale characters, prepared the four for their school day, attending a Christian K through 12 school. 

But, as Sydney approached 12, outgrowing VeggieTales, and becoming a preteen, Dripping Springs was too far. Too far from friends, sports, and their social scene. So, the Johnson family packed their things and moved a mere 10 minutes away from her school, closer to the city. 

This was the turning point, as young as she was. No longer a self-described “horse girl”, instead surrounded by opportunities and experiences only a city had to offer. She became herself. Her need to explore, her desire to adventure, and a passion for new things blossomed within the city that had a little something for everyone. 

Little did she know this would become her full-time job. But, not without the occasional bump, hiccup, and rock bottom. 

Daily Life

Sydney’s alarm rings loudly in her ear, forcing her to move. She grabbed her phone, checking the time, 6:15 a.m., then Instagram. She finally moves when her phone reads 6:45. She doesn’t feel compelled to get up completely until she checks again and reads 7. 

‘Get your ass out of bed. It’s time to start the day.’  She thinks. 

The day inevitably starts with an iced oat milk latte, a pink sweet and low packet, with a pinch of cinnamon whilst reading the Alabaster Co. Bible in a year book. 

But what she loved most is not a single day in her life looked the same.

After only two years since graduating from the University of Arkansas with a hospitality management degree, Sydney is the publication editor for Fayetteville City Lifestyle Magazine, a magazine with the sole focus of connecting the residents of Fayetteville with local businesses and unknown events.

On the side, Sydney pursues content creation, and has a Podcast called “To the Girls” talking about all things life, with her good friend Emily Hendrick, a photographer for the magazine. The two met at a photoshoot for a local boutique, Sydney was part-time modeling for in-store credit, and Emily was shooting, and the two happened to just start working for the magazine. The idea sparked after a year working together, but both Sydney and Emily were hesitant.

What are you going to talk about? Who is your audience? Why? There is so much noise out there I don’t want to just add to it if I don’t have anything to say.

But after four months of praying and talking with Emily the two finally decided to start, with the first episode airing June 6, 2025.  

But none of this would have come to fruition if it hadn’t been for her senior year of college. Sydney graduated with a hospitality major in the honors college, requiring a ten-page thesis backed by a research project. 

The thing is, research wasn’t particularly Sydney’s forte, so she opted for the creative project. 

Late one night she pondered a list of ideas she created for the project, when like a spark, an idea ignited, “The College Girl’s Guide to Fayetteville.” 

A book, she could write a book. But her rationality led to doubts. 

You don’t even know how to write a book. What are you talking about? 

But she refused to give up; instead, she decided to learn. For that year, she studied print and how it differed from digital, and how phones negatively impact young people’s ability to connect and to create real and authentic friendships. She began to understand the tangibility of something like a magazine or book or a piece of paper, and how fundamentally different a hard piece of literature reads compared to digital media. 

She began to create her book. An all-encompassing guide to Fayetteville specifically targeted to girls in college. The book introduces local businesses, like coffee shops, restaurants, workout studios, photo ops, boutiques, all the things that a college girl would need to know coming to Fayetteville to check off a bucket list. She included her own personal picks and advice, so the girls would feel like they had someone by their side guiding them. 

What was a school project became a personal passion, and would make news headlines in and around Fayetteville, and Sydney would appear on Good Day NWA in November of 2023. 

The book became a direct lifeline to her current magazine job. A job with creative freedom connecting with her community, supporting small businesses, and autonomy over her own time and schedule.

But, when she graduated, she didn’t immediately start working for her creatively freeing journalism job. She decided to work in the corporate world. 

Taking a job for a staffing company in IT, clocking in from 8 in the morning to 5, and sitting behind blue light monitors for nine hours, was her beginning, like many graduates. It was the normal route, she told herself.  And she was doing sales. Her personality, driven and ambitious, worked wonderfully in sales and pitching. 

But after only four weeks, she had no clue why she even took the job. Sure, she needed the paycheck and benefits, but it was like pulling teeth. 

“Mom. This sucks,” She shared a year ago, telling her mother, the woman she turned to for everything. Sydney had lost all her motivation, her spark, within 30 days. 

“You took the job. And you need to stay for at least a year just for your resume at least. Take something from it,” was her mother’s advice. 

Sydney nodded, and that is what she did. Within that year, she stayed, and she learned that she could do hard things. She stayed even though she had no desire to and confronted the discomfort of quitting a year later. The friend who referred her was frustrated, but Sydney’s only thoughts were:

‘This is my life and my happiness, and I am not going to sacrifice that just because I might upset somebody else. This is my young 20s. I’ll never get this time back.’

So, she left. She got out with the offer for the magazine already on the table. 

Her day never quite looks the same, no longer locked behind a sea of screens, instead varying from meetings and pitches, to creating layouts, forming new podcast ideas, or checking in on her team, divvying up her day between the magazine, content creation, and the podcast. 

And she loves it. She loves her community, the autonomy and freedom of her schedule, the creative possibilities, and her simple yet lovely nights with her husband, Jade, watching television and cooking dinner together. 

Let’s Get Deep

She thought differently from others, and she always knew that. At least from the age of 8. Sydney was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. 

A disorder that disrupts daily life. A disorder that, quite frankly, ruins days. Something Sydney had and has firsthand experience with. 

As a child, her OCD was maddening, with a constant onset of fears her brain circled around.

She had to flip the light switch a certain way and a certain number of times. If she touched something, she washed her hands so much they would bleed. She forced herself to check if the oven was off. Too worried to fall asleep. She got in and out of bed 20 times to use the restroom. So afraid of getting sick in school, she threw up in the car on the way. 

The OCD only created more anxiety when she was heading to college, with repetitive thoughts running rampant about other people’s perception of her and how she was coming across to the point she couldn’t stand to be alone with anyone because all she could think of was how she was being perceived. It took normal social anxiety and dialed it to an unhealthy level. 

When it got bad there were many moments where she thought: 

This is miserable. I cannot live like this. I will not live like this.

These moments never had any actions or thoughts that were going to be taken, but rather an acknowledgement that something had to change. 

One of those moments was freshman year. Coming to college in 2020, the peak of COVID-19. The hardest year to date in her young life, which was ironic because online, she looked happier than ever. 

The year wasn’t without its highs. She had won the Miss Austin pageant, as the youngest contestant, and her first ever pageant. She had poured a year’s worth of preparation, starting a nonprofit-like project “Weightless Worth,” speaking on eating disorders, learning how to speak with elegance and eloquence, and not screwing up that entire year of prep in the thirty seconds given to speak. 

The win was not only a boost to her confidence but a total shift in her brain chemistry. It was one of the first times she proved to herself that she was a capable person. If she put her mind to something she could do it.

But it wasn’t as if everything magically fixed itself after the win. She still struggled, and she tried to find some sense of fun, even when her whole world felt off. 

She met Chandler, one of her best friends to date, during her freshman year, partying at fraternities and getting drunk. But six months passed, and her problems hadn’t gone away; the partying didn’t help, and she was still struggling.  

I don’t really know who I am anymore.

That’s when she started following God. 

Religion

Sydney grew up in a Christian home, attended a Christian school from pre-K to 12th grade, and believed there was a God. But that didn’t mean Christian school looked like Christian life. 

It’s interesting because we’re all “Christians” but we’re not Christians.

She quickly recognized it was fake, a performance. People would be professing the gospel, then watching those same people do drugs and get drunk. Or going to chapel each week, and people vaping in the corner. The contrast confused her. 

She even questioned herself. 

Why am I even saying and claiming Christianity if I’m not even going to do it? 

But she did all the things- she was in a small group, she attended Sunday Church, she went to Christian school, Young Life, and she loved Jesus. But the contrast was stark in what she was learning and what she was seeing. 

Her freshman year was when everything changed. It was her rock bottom, a year filled with complications and Covid, but there was a light, and it was because of a non-Christian school. 

University of Arkansas students that were claiming Christianity were living differently. When people actually spoke about their faith, they meant it. Their schedules centered around church, their attitudes were uplifting, and they acted differently. 

There are actually people out there who don’t fake it. This is really cool. I have a completely new respect for it.

She started crying out to God, journaling, but out of sheer desperation. She was in a depression and needed out. And this desperation led to a relationship. This is when she started attending church with her friend Chandler, both leaving behind toxic friendships and looking to start fresh. This process was no walk in the park either, but they were figuring it out together. 

She was still fighting OCD, but she was now on medication, and with the help of her family and friends, therapy, and learning to say “No” to obsessive thoughts. 

Overcoming OCD to the point where I can live and kind of forget that I have it in some instances, partly medication and partly therapy, partly grit and willpower- that is my proudest accomplishment because I feel like a completely different person from when I used to live day to day in high school up until college.

Sydney often looks at the positive side, acknowledging that her OCD makes her more of who she is, a determined, high-achieving woman, motivated by success and making some sort of impact on this earth, whose struggles have made her stronger.

Sydney’s freshman year concluded, and she experienced three amazing years of college. Even though her first year was frustratingly difficult, it shaped her, not only in how she views herself but her perspective on the world. 

I have so much respect for people who have mental anxiety, whatever that looks like, because I know how real it feels. I acted like I was doing great, but I wasn’t. So, I think I mean to say don’t believe everything you are seeing online, and check in on people, even the happy ones, because usually the funniest or happiest people are struggling too. 

Advice

Be open to meeting anybody. Never treat people differently based on any aspect of them.  In that same breath, don’t care what they think about you. Those are my two biggest things because I think it’s something that really traps us in the mentality of being scared to be weird in this person’s eyes, so that would be my biggest advice – just be yourself. I know that is so cheesy, but it’s cheesy cause it’s true. Because God created you with your personality and quirks and all these different things. You shouldn’t be simmered down because no one else has what you have.

Just Chatting

Excerpts of my favorite and unrelated talking bits

S: I used to not understand church hurt, and I never experienced it- well, actually- in high school. My ex-boyfriend’s youth pastor compared me to a prostitute in Hosea, yeah.

M: Oh, I would be throwing hands.

M: Anything you’re looking forward to?

S: I am looking forward to celebrating people in my life, people getting married and having babies, and then seeing my parents because we have a trip with them coming up, so I have a lot of upcoming fun things in the works for my personal life, and as somebody who only focuses solely on my goals- I have started to switch. My husband, Jade, has helped me with that. Realizing the people in my life are what matter. So, to be fully present and fully celebrate them and dates on the calendar, so I can do that is really exciting for me. 

M: Career Dream?

S: I could see myself doing my own city lifestyle in a city that I move to, like Dripping Springs City Lifestyle, because it is a national company. Or I could see myself starting completely fresh. As far as social media goes, I do just want to be able to support myself on a level of income that I am exceeding my monthly salary at the magazine, that would be really cool. And then I love fitness and health, so I think it would be really fun to take on a side job as a coach in some capacity in Pilates or Burn boot camp. I think right now I want to be in charge of my time, and I don’t want to be under a corporation that is making me crunch numbers. I want to be autonomous. Maybe that (her goals) will look different in three weeks, and that’s the beauty of being in your 20s.