I feel like I don’t have a “hometown.” It’s not sad — I feel connected to everywhere I've lived. I love many of the people I’ve met and from moving at the beginning of 6th grade to moving to college have shaped me to be the person I am today. I don’t feel a bond with just one place. I love Charleston, obviously! Living in downtown Charleston is really cute, exciting and new to me, so I’m happy here. The thing is, I really haven’t hated a single place I’ve laid my head.
From living in Elon, North Carolina to Frisco, Texas to Hampstead, North Carolina I’ve had experiences that made me the gal I am today. I’ve met my best friends, discovered my passions and realized that North Carolina isn’t that bad, I actually love NC. I went to private school all through elementary school with mostly the same 16 kids throughout the six years. There were only six girls in the class including me, so moving from small town North Carolina to everything’s bigger in Texas was a little of a shock. My middle school had a couple thousand kids and all of the sudden no one knew me and I was labeled as the new kid. In a way, I loved the attention of being new a large school because everyone wanted to get to know me or know where I was from. Moving around is cool in that way, you don't have a reputation so you can be whoever you want to be and by that, I mean leaving all the negativity in the past. I loved Frisco, Texas and I have always loved Texas in general since my childhood family trips to visit my Aunt Di and Uncle Wayne in the summers.
To my 6th grade self, moving back to my small town in North Carolina was the worst. I hated the thought of going back to a place where I knew everyone. It was good for me in the long run because I’ve always been one for change and a little over a year later I moved to Surf City, North Carolina and I went to the beach every day of that summer.
I went to Topsail High school all four years, which was the first time since elementary school that I had gone to the same school for more than two years with the same people since my elementary school days. People move for different reasons, but no matter the reason, moving around and meeting new people makes you grow in a different way than people who live in the same place their entire life. You are forced to be happy with yourself and put yourself out there. I haven’t kept up with everyone, but everyone impacted my life in some way and I'm who I am today because all the incredible people I've met. Who knows, maybe you'll get an Instagram direct message from a boy you went to middle school with and end up reconnecting. Thank you to my kindergarten class with Ms. Adams, much love to my 6th-grade chorus class with Ms. Rodriguez, thanks for all the memories, Topsail High School Drama, and I’m forever grateful for my new college BFFs for helping me through my first year at College of Charleston. I don’t feel like one town is my true hometown, but the little unique pieces from each place have made me, as someone pretty rockin' called me, the Southern beach town beauty I am today.