We all have a favorite place, the place that you go to on your best and worst days. That one place in the whole world that has always been there for you when your world came crashing down. For a second think about your place, does it make you feel safe? Does it calm you down or make you feel alive? Where is the one place that you can’t walk away from without looking back at multiple times before finally stepping into a new chapter of your life? Since for as long as I can remember that place for me has always been the lake. No, not out in the middle of the lake, right on the shore where the water meets the sand. All my life I’ve lived five minutes away from Lake Erie, so naturally that’s where I spent my summers and my winters. Since I was 5 years old to now a junior in college the lake has never left me. The lake is where I went when I lost my papa and when I was accepted to John Carroll, days where I was on opposite sides of the spectrum, but it didn’t matter because the lake is where I wanted to be. I always do my best thinking when I’m sitting on the rocks with water on both sides of me and the chilly lake air blowing against my face. I think about who I am, where I’ve been, where I am, and where I am going. With nothing to distract me or pull me out of my thoughts, I sit there for hours just thinking about anything and everything in the world and not for a second does this time feel like a waste. The lake is not my favorite place because of its beauty, even though it is so beautiful, the lake is my favorite place because it’s where I feel most like myself. Sitting on the edge of the rocks looking into the sunset, this where I let my guard down and accept myself for who I am and how hard I’ve fought to be me. You see the lake has been there for me through every season; the good and the bad, the dark and the bright, the long and the short. At the lake is where I feel most like myself and the most free, surrounded by silence and the beauty of nature. No matter how long it’s been since I’ve gone to my spot at the lake, it’s always like I never left it for a second. It doesn’t matter if I spent minutes or hours sitting down there, I always leave thinking about the next time that I get to go back to my favorite place. Next time you go to your favorite place, take a moment and thank it for being there for you through all the storms of life that you thought you wouldn’t make it through. Take a moment to embrace the happiness that you feel every time you return to your favorite place. No matter where I end up in life, miles or minutes away from my favorite place at Lake Erie, I will always return to the one place that made me feel so alive and free. Here’s to the next time that I get to go back to my favorite place, the place where I feel most like myself.