Some people hate the rain. I like it. I like the sound it makes as it falls outside my window at night, as it hits the windshield of my car, as it collides with the salt water. I also like the mist and fog. I like the way it clings to the evergreen trees, how it hugs the water, how it becomes the perfect picture frame for spots where the fog breaks through. My home in Gig Harbor, Washington is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I´ve lived here my entire life, surrounded and supported by my immediate and extended family.

Close family is a community that helps raise us and it cannot be replaced. I know that more than anything. My childhood was filled with laughter, playing by the water, and mostly time with my family. Not just my siblings and parents, but my aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and uncles, second cousins, grandparents, and even parents’ cousins’ kids. My family was big, with my grandma having 4 siblings and all of them living on the same street. That's another unique thing about my family, 80% of my moms side all live within 3 minutes of each other. My grandma´s siblings all bought houses that made them next door neighbors. My house now is just up the road from all these great aunts and uncles and I have cousins who live close too. I grew up playing on the beach that was laid in front of their houses. I have fond memories of dunking my head in the icy cold water while a host of family cheered me on from the bulkhead above. The feeling of diving into the cold water is one I will never forget, I feel as if I have done it a million times. It's all at once freezing and refreshing and if you keep your head under too long it becomes painful as a brain freeze starts to take over. That beach where my mom took me to play with my cousins was the foundation for many memories.

Another thing that brings my family together is Cooking Club. Cooking Club was something that began when my mom first had me and neither her nor her sister (who also had young kids) knew how to cook. Their aunt Jane offered to teach them how to cook on Fridays. This became a tradition that almost every woman in the family would attend weekly to cook and chat over a meal. These traditions and memories have kept my family so close knit, and I would not be who I am today without it. To me, America is a country built on love and support from family.

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