Sanford Stadium, home stadium of the Georgia football team, has been a fortress of memories for UGA fans across the state of Georgia and beyond. With a capacity of 92,000 plus, most Saturdays in Athens during the fall find the place filled with passionate Georgia football fans, ready to rock the stadium to the ground. For years, I had dreamed of my first visit to this magical place and the memories I would create in just a single trip. Finally, on a cold Saturday afternoon in November of 2009, I got my chance.

My dad came home from a shopping trip with my mom to spill the good news to me. At first, I thought it was a joke, considering that was his persona to joke about this kind of stuff. So after the interrogation I gave him to find if what he said was true, he convinced me that this was no lie and we were going to watch the Dawgs take on the Wildcats of Kentucky. I was beyond excited! I think I even shed a tear at the thought of going to watch my favorite school play football in person for the first time. It was already 6:30 back home in Peachtree City, and with a 7:45 kickoff fast approaching, we needed to get on the road. So we packed the car and took off for Athens.

Since we were living in Peachtree City at the time, it was about a two-hour drive to Athens, and it sure did feel like it. I've made that drive since becoming a student a couple months ago and I can say that my dad must be a slow driver because that drive felt like centuries. Maybe my excitement was blocking my sense of time or something, but it felt like that drive was gonna last forever. We knew that we weren't going to make kickoff, so we turned on the radio to hear the familiar voice of Scott Howard, the radio commentator for UGA. We listened to the Dawgs take an early lead on Kentucky as we finally arrived in the Classic City.

Again, it felt like we parked miles from the stadium (mainly because we did, I just didn't know it) as we walked toward Sanford. I saw so many buildings that I would become familiar within the next 10 years, including Tate Student Center and Miller Learning Center. Finally, she stood right in front of me, the 92,000 capacity stadium I had heard so much about and was finally about to witness with my own eyes. It took us another few minutes to find our seats in the 300 section, but once we did, it was breathtaking. You could see the entire field from the spot we had, and memories of old Georgia games I had watched flooded my brain, all becoming a little overwhelming. It was just magical, that's the best way I could describe it.

Being a huge sports fan, I knew how many sporting events I had been to in my short lifespan to that point, even knowing the record of my teams when I was in attendance for those games. I believe I was hovering over a .500 record when we entered the stadium and I for sure thought I was going to add a win to my collection today. I mean, we were facing Kentucky, the laughing stock of the SEC who hadn't beaten Georgia in Athens for over 30 years. It was a guaranteed win, and in the first half, Georgia played the part. The Dawgs scored two touchdowns and added a field goal to take a 20-6 lead into the locker room. It was awesome to watch one of my favorite players at the time Orson Charles score on a 20-yard touchdown catch, the first one I had seen at Sanford.

The Dawgs had been an average team in 2009, so much promise after a decent season before, but losses to LSU, Tennessee, and Florida derailed all momentum we were trying to build. This game felt different than those games, and I felt Georgia couldn't be stopped tonight, especially with me in attendance. As the second half opened, Kentucky took the ball down the field within one minute and cut the lead to a touchdown. I started to get a little bit nervous from my 300 section seat, and I'm sure the nerves were being felt as well the closer you got to that Georgia sideline. The nerves were calmed as Georgia responded with a touchdown of their own to push the lead back up to 14. This would be the last time Georgia scored this night.

Four turnovers later that turned into 24 Wildcat points, I all of a sudden looked up to the scoreboard reading 34-27 Kentucky as the final seconds ticked down on the clock. As Georgia threw an interception that clinched the win for Kentucky, my dad asked me if I wanted to go ahead and start leaving. I was in utter shock that I don't remember answering the question, just a simple head nod signaled to my dad I was ready to leave. The stadium that I had told my mind I couldn't have a bad memory of just filled with a nightmarish one. I don't remember the walk back, or the long drive back to Peachtree City. I just remember the game, and how out of hand it got near the end. I never wanted to return. I thought I was the bad luck charm that should never return unless I wanted to make sure the Dawgs lost.

As I walked into my room at 2:00 a.m, the memories continued to flood my mind. "How could we lose, we were winning by so much at halftime" is all my mind could think of. Just as I felt as though my mind was going to explode, my dad called for me just as I was about to head to bed. He told me how much fun the game was to him and told me all the games he went to with his dad, who had died a few years prior in 2006. All of a sudden, my mind was at such ease. I could see the excitement in my dad, sharing an experience with his son that he would always cherish. At that point, the score of the game didn't matter to me anymore. Sanford Stadium, even during a soul-crushing Georgia loss, created a memory that would ultimately last forever, at least in my eyes. I went to sleep that night, smiling, recreating the memory of not MY first UGA game in my lifetime, the first one my dad and I shared.

I've been to Sanford Stadium countless times since then. I've seen some of UGA's greatest wins, and I've seen some heart-wrenching losses. That game in 2009, on a cold November night, will ALWAYS be my favorite out of all the UGA games I've been to, and I have a pretty good feeling it will still be out of all the games I plan on going to. Thank you Sanford Stadium for sharing your memory-filled greatness with me in 2009, and keep on sharing your greatness for years to come.