If you ask me where I am from. I only have one answer. If you ask me where I grew up, I only have one answer. This is because I’ve lived within a one mile radius my entire life. I know a town like the back of my hand. I know a city so well I could navigate through it blindfolded and probably only run three red lights. I know a place so wholeheartedly that I call it home.

I have been fortunate enough to grow up in a household with two parents, both of my grandparents within three miles of me and to know a town so well I never needed Waze to navigate. I know what you are thinking: this girl must live in a small little town that she can drive the length and the width in one day and still make it be back for lunch. But in fact, that isn't true at all. I grew up in Los Angeles, one of the biggest most bustling cities in America and I couldn't have imagined it any different. This place I call my hometown is full of opportunity and adventure and I was able to grow up in this place that cultivated so many of my dreams and the dreams before mine and even the ones after.

Where I grew up made me who I am. It encouraged my fashion sense (70 and sunny all year round), cultivated my love for good food, showed me what my future could be and how I’d prefer it not to be, familiarized me to the coast and the rolling seas, introduced me to some lifelong friends and some that were just passing through, it broke my heart a couple times, but it always picked me back up, it has shaped me into the person I am today. Los Angeles, or Mar Vista in particular has left its mark on me as I have left my mark on it. The field at that park around the block has felt my feet and unfortunately my butt for whenever I used to sit and watch butterflies during soccer matches. It is safe to say I was never MVP. I did, however, dominate on the courts when I used to ball out in a coed league as a child. Then when I realized the swings were my true calling, I had many to choose from. These are the places that I will remember, this is my childhood.

The days when I could walk to my elementary school because it was just three blocks away. The times I would take the bus home from my middle school and my mom would be waiting with open arms at the bus stop when I would get dropped off. The times I thought I was the next Kerri Walsh and then I realized I was about a foot too short for that dream to ever come true. However that never stopped me from playing club volleyball my entire life at the hopes of a sudden growth spurt. These are the times that I left my mark on the only place I will ever truly call home.