Something that always strikes people's attention when they meet me, is where I am from. I live on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, GA, and I have my whole life. From learning how to swim in the cove that backs up to my house, or watching the sunset on the water, the lake has made a huge impact on my life. Because I've lived there all my life, I've seen both the good side and bad side of living on the lake.

When I was about 6 or 7 years old, we had a drought that caused the water level of the lake to drop drastically. I remember jumping off our dock where the water would have been, and landing on the mud. A fun fact about Lake Lanier; it's a man-made lake. A small town was bought and evacuated so that the government could build Lake Lanier there, meaning there are still parts of a city underneath the water. My dad and I spent that drought summer exploring Oscarville (the town that was originally there). There are buildings and cemeteries and even a racetrack all within distance of my house. Even though we couldn't spend that summer swimming, learning about the history of Lake Lanier changed the way I saw it from then on.

Living on the lake forced me out of my comfort zone, but I wouldn't have traded my childhood spent there for anything.