This isn't how it was supposed to happen.

Emerson Day was supposed to enroll at the U.S. Naval Academy, play lacrosse and enter a career of military service.
 
But, as John Lennon once sang, "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."
 
Singer-songwriter and Campbell lacrosse graduate Emerson Day simply says, "God had a plan."
 
That plan involved a serious knee injury, a different college choice, academic major, all-star career, meeting your eventual spouse, and, ultimately, a calling to share the word through music.
 
Life on the farm
Day grew up on the family farm in Southern Maryland and developed a love for music, the outdoors and athletics.
 
The granddaughter of a college basketball and football player, Day's father (Shawn) played college football, and her mother (Susan) was a cheerleader.  Both siblings – Chad and Madison – went on to play college lacrosse.  That environment of athletes fostered a competitive nature in Day, who first picked up a lacrosse stick age the age of six and began playing in organized leagues two years later.
 
"Even now in the summers, family volleyball games, or corn hole tournaments, they get pretty competitive really quick," says Emerson.
 
Lacrosse is one of the most popular sports in the Mid-Atlantic States; Day equates it to high school football in the South.  By the time she reached Leonardtown High School, Day knew she wanted to play collegiately at the highest level.
 
Committed to Navy since her junior year, everything changed in the spring of 2012 when Day suffered a major knee injury, that included a cracked femur and required surgery.
Recruiters at the Naval Academy recommended that she attend Naval Prep school for a year because her knee condition would not allow her to pass the physical required for first year students.
 
Day did not want to wait an extra year to enroll in college.  However, all the other schools who had recruited the US Lacrosse first team prep All-American had already filled their scholarships for the 2012-13 season.
 
Then Emerson received a call from a school that she didn't know existed.
 
"I got a call from Phil Schuman, the original coach at Campbell, and it went something along the lines of 'hey, I heard you're a free agent. We have a new program. Would you want to come play here?'"
 
One visit to the school was all it took to convince Emerson to sign on with the start-up Camel program.
 
"When I stepped foot on campus, I absolutely fell in love with Campbell.  It was the Southern hospitality I felt from everyone I met there from the staff, training staff, strength and conditioning staff, even the faculty.  I loved that Campbell was based on Christian principles.  I just felt like this could be home for me."
 
The generosity of Fighting Camel fans, alumni, family, and friends truly makes a difference in the lives of student-athletes at Campbell University.  Through the newly created Women's Empowerment Fund, the Fighting Camel Club's goal is to make that experience even better, specifically for our female student-athletes.  To join the Fighting Camel Club, click here.
 
What did a scholarship mean to her?
 
"It was everything," Emerson says.  "I felt so proud that a school thought enough of me. I felt so proud to be able to help my parents, to be able to help myself, I had such a sense of pride and accomplishment and even more skin in the game. To feel like you had the validation of a coaching staff or a team to say, 'we think you are good enough' was probably the biggest thing for me.  It meant the world to me."
 
A standout career
Over the next four seasons, Day helped the Camels win 28 games and post their first overall and conference winning records.  Individually, she set school career records for goals (191) and points (255) that still stand.
 
As a senior in 2016, she was named the Big South offensive player of the year after scoring 67 goals, including a school-record nine in one game against Radford.  She finished fourth in the nation in scoring and that single-season goals tally is still the most in Campbell record books.
 
Four years later, she was named to the Big South Conference all-decade team.
 
She still recalls that first season when she was one of just 12 players on the team.  In NCAA women's lacrosse, 12 players are on the field at one time.  Equate that 2012 team roster size to a basketball team with only five players.
 
Not only did that team survive its first season of competition, but the Camels finished with a 6-7 overall record.
 
"I still talk to those girls almost every single day," Emerson says.  "We get together multiple times a year.  We're friends for life because of that bond you have.  It was just the 12 of us. There were times back in my freshman year when there was nothing left in the tank; I was just gassed. But when you see someone else just giving their all, you realize who has your back and who is looking out for you on the field and off the field."
 
In addition to giving credit to her coaches through the years, Day credited the role that former strength and conditioning coach Andrew Carter (who happened to be a former college lacrosse player) played in the team's development.
 
"Andrew Carter was a huge influence on our team especially that first year because how do you train 12 people to be their strongest and in best condition on the field, but also to keep them healthy so all 12 people could play?  That was a very delicate line he had to walk in that we were healthy, but we were getting better every single day," she said.
 
Dawn Easley took over as head coach before Day's sophomore season and not only continued to build the program from a competitive standpoint, but also created an environment where players were able to freely share their spirituality.
 
After attending Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings as a freshman, Emerson and many of her teammates joined Ransom, a Christian Bible study group during her sophomore year.
 
"I always felt (the coaching staff) brought God into everything we did, whether that was praying before games, or talking about faith in the locker room or sharing scripture, having it on the wall in the locker room," Emerson recalls.  "Tiny seeds were being planted and constantly infiltrating our hearts and minds, so that even when it's tough and maybe we had a hard conditioning day, it was nice to walk into the locker room and see some scripture on the wall and be filled with the hope of Jesus, more than just the hope of me and myself and my physical abilities."
 
Emerson also recalls the feeling that the team experienced during her senior year when the Camels defeated archrival Coastal Carolina 8-7 on the road after losing close games to the Chanticleers four times over the previous three seasons.  More than the two goals and three assists she tallied that day, the feeling the team shared at the end is still the most memorable aspect of that day nearly nine years later.
 
"I just remember every person on that sideline rushing the field, and celebrating that moment when the clock hit zero and the look on our faces," says Emerson.
 
More than just sports
 
As a freshman, Emerson enrolled in Barbara Hudson's music appreciation class, which turned out to be a life-changing decision.  Campbell football player Brice Sessoms also was a student in that class.
 
"We had an assignment where we had to embody a musical icon from a previous era, and I had Liberace," says Emerson.  "I wrote a song about him and performed it in the classroom.
 
"I thought this guy (Brice) is going to think I'm so weird," she recalls.  "But we had a good time, ended up talking about it, and he walked me to my next class.  At the time, I was on crutches because I'd had knee surgery, so this nice Southern gentleman would walk me from class to class and carry my books."
 
She and Brice began dating during the spring semester and continued to do so for the next three years.  They eventually married after graduating.
 
"God had a plan," Emerson says.
 
With an appointment to the Naval Academy off the table, Day shifted her focus to a career in federal law enforcement.  Campbell's Homeland Security major fit her intentions perfectly.
 
During her senior year, Day completed an internship with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Raleigh office.  She then applied for a full-time job with the ATF, which required an extensive and vetting process, so after graduation, Emerson moved back home to the farm.
 
A different calling
Emerson remembers playing the guitar and writing songs as early as the age of eight.  Throughout college she would pick up her guitar and find comfort in singing and playing.  When she returned home following graduation, she started writing again.  That's when she received a different call – not one from the ATF Bureau.
 
"That time was when I picked up the guitar again," Emerson says.  "Music was always a big part of my life, I would sing in church, it was my outlet. I had a guitar in my dorm room. It was always there; it was a comfort to me."
 
After being surrounded by teammates and classmates for the previous four years, Emerson returned to the farm to live with her parents while she waited to hear if the ATF would offer her a position.
 
"In that time, I picked up the guitar again and started writing and I really felt that God put on my heart that this is what I'm supposed to do," Emerson recalls.  "And I'm like, 'no – I've got a degree and spent all that money and time, four years of getting a degree in homeland security.  I don't know the first thing about music.'  So, I rejected and ran from that idea for a whole year, but the calling was so strong, so I just said, 'okay God, I'm going to do music.'"
 
When an offer to join the ATF as a special agent was extended, Emerson turned it down.  She knew that to earn that kind of opportunity right out of college was out of the ordinary but felt that she had to explore a musical career.
 
A new chapter
"Music was going to be the next chapter, but I didn't know a thing about it. I didn't live in Nashville. I was living in Maryland at the time. I was barely playing guitar," she says.
 
However, Emerson discovered that years of training and competing in lacrosse helped prepare her for a musical career.
 
"All those skills that you learn as a student-athlete, I never realized how much they would translate into the grit and determination and work ethic I would need to figure this (music) out and to keep going," she said.
 
Eventually, Emerson took a day job with SERVPRO – a restoration service – and began writing songs and performing regularly for the next seven years.
 
"I was gigging pretty much every night I could – Thursdays through Sunday.  I would go out and play shows, me and a guitar, I would go out and open for bands, play an acoustic set at some restaurant; basically, anywhere that had live music and would let me come play," she said.
 
During that time, not only did Emerson hone her guitar chops, singing and songwriting skills, but she also learned about the marketing and business side of the industry.
 
She draws a correlation between performing on the lacrosse field and on stage.
 
"That moment on the field, when it's up to you, was backed by hours and hours and hours of training, putting in the time doing the conditioning, doing extra reps in the weight room, doing wall ball. Those times are the moments that build success for the times late in the game.  Training plus ability gave me confidence for those moments.
 
"And it's the same for me in music. How can I be the best artist I could be if I'm not playing the guitar every day, or if I'm not writing every day.  There was a season where I would lock myself in my music room and I would write anywhere from one to six songs in a day, just trying to get better. I did that for months and months and months," she said.  "Another thing that athletics provides is how to accept failure, how to accept when things don't go your way.  The more times you can reinforce that, the greater you get as a player, as an artist, whatever you are doing."
 
Along the way, Emerson says that she grew spiritually.
 
"We grew up in church as a family and talked about God in our household," says Emerson.  "For me, personally, I had a lot of growing to do later in life. I learned who Jesus was to me a lot later. I was baptized at a young age, but you've got to go through the hard stuff and the meat of life to really understand who God is sometimes.  For me, it was being out on my own as an adult, that's when my faith took the biggest leap."
 
Influences
In her Spotify bio, Emerson lists Southern guitar rock and old church piano as two early musical influences.  Riding around in her dad's pickup truck listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd as well as the country music of Shania Twain her mom enjoyed, plus hymns and contemporary Christian songs she sang in church are influences that show up in her performances.
 
"For me it was kind of a melting pot of I grew up on a farm, I'm a country girl, I'm a little bit rock and roll, but I love Jesus. That's what I want my music to reflect," says Emerson.
 
Emerson signed her first record deal in 2022 with Fair Trade Services and released her first EP, "God Ain't Finished Yet" in 2024.  Her country rock inspiration is evident on her latest single, "Get Behind Me."
 
"I've always been one who wants to push the limits and boundaries and color outside the box a little bit," says Emerson. "I want to be myself, I but I want the message to be all above all else about Jesus."
 
Emerson also hopes that she is sharing her message of faith through a genre that may attract listeners who might not otherwise be drawn to Christian music.
 
"The Bible says to make a joyful noise," she says.  "It doesn't say what it has to look like or the specifics, so that's my joyful noise. If it's an electric guitar, and we're jamming out and praising the Lord, then I'm all for it."
 
It takes a village
Emerson credits everyone who has helped her along the way through all phases of her life for contributing to her calling.
 
"I cannot stress enough the support that was sewn into me from my coaching staff, the support staff, the athletic training staff, I always felt that people cared and were sewing into this ministry, helping to craft who I am today," says Emerson.  "I'm writing songs and putting out music that reaches thousands to millions of people.  Every person that was along for the journey has had a hand in helping get the Gospel into the ears and hearts of millions of people."
 
What's next?
Emerson and Brice now make their home near Chapel Hill in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  Now with more than 70,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, she is looking forward to "Get Behind Me" hitting the radio airwaves this spring, playing festivals over the summer and touring in the fall.
 
"I'm always looking to write and put out new music," she says, "and one of my favorite things I do is to get out on the road and meet people."
 
As for advice she would share with any college student, Emerson says to look inward.
 
"Take this time to truly do some soul-searching with God, to find out who you are and who God wants you to be," she says.  "I think God puts dreams in our hearts for a reason."