Conrad Randall-Bauer

The world is home to many steep sloping, threatening mountain peaks that few people dare to explore and climb. However, there are those who dare, including my parents. Mom and Dad have sumitted many mountains, but their love for climbing reaches far beyond the climb itself…. My four siblings and I have many things in common, but one timeless thing that our parents gave to each of us is a unique mountain to be our middle names: McKinley, Rainier, Elias, and Everest. Although all four of us have mountains as our middle names, I am the only one who can claim the first name to come from our parents' love for climbing, after all the name Conrad comes from famous mountain climber Conrad Anker. So, since birth I have had an inseparable tie to mountains whether I would end up liking them or not.

Looking back on my nineteen years of life thus far, the theme of mountains and climbing has stayed present throughout the rollercoaster of a ride that this life has been. They have taught me lessons of perseverance and mindfulness. At a young age, I was climbing Mt. Rainier with my dad after my siblings quit, until he had to pull me off the mountain as we were not properly equipped. During my sophomore year of high school I climbed the tallest peak in Colorado and one of the tallest in the continental United States, Mt. Elbert. To sum up that trip up, my mom and I almost did not make it back as our tent at the base of the mountain was stalked in the middle of the night, but we made it out safely and I wrote my UGA supplemental on this experience, putting me in the seat that I am in today.