Dear Malcolm, My name is Anastasia Davis. I grew up in the lovely, coastal town of Wilmington, NC.

Sadly, I miss it every day. It was an extreme transition for me to come to UNCC. Even though I was accepted into every school I applied too, UNCC was probably last on the list. I dont like it as much as I expected, but Im making the most of what I have. I am in Alpha Delta Pi, a sorority here on campus, and I really do love it. I also love my roommate, and living with her is awesome. But still, home really is where the heart is. It was probably so hard for me to leave because I am so in love with my lifestyle back home. I live directly on the water, and smelling the salty air and scents of the marsh has been something that I have grown up with. My parents live on opposite sides of Wilmington, yet both next to the water. I am close with both of my parents, and leaving them was difficult. Since my older brother Billy left for App State a year before me, my parents realized how much that sucked and then latched onto me never wanting to let me go. I didnt mind the spoiling, but it did make it more difficult to move away. As cheesy as it sounds, I also have a boyfriend back home, and that made it twice as difficult to leave. I often run back home every chance I get to go see them. As I said on the first day, I absolutely love animals and have owned and personally cared for many different types over the years; cats, dogs, horses, pigs, goats, guinea pigs, rabbits, even an iguana and a chinchilla. Since I knew my mom wouldnt be able to keep up with most of the care for the animals, I searched for a long time to find them the perfect new homes. Now we have just a 15 and a half year old German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix (shes going to have to live forever because I wont let her go) and two cats. It was so hard giving up my horses, but I knew that it would be pointless for me to move them up here and for me to never see them. As much as I love them, I know that they are in loving hands. Its still hard to go back home and be able to sleep past 7 am without having to worry about some mammal (or reptile) being fed. Growing up I was forced into everything imaginable. Coming from athletic parents (both played soccer for UNCW, Dad played professional in Europe for a few seasons) I was required to try everything. At some point or another I was playing softball, swimming, track and field, horseback riding, soccer, tennis, golf(for a very LONG week), dance (also a very long month), and cycling. As if being a star athlete wasnt enough, I was also enrolled in music lessons such as piano and saxophone (?- still dont know why). Those were short lived because I would purposely suck and my mom would get tired of wasting money. I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, and with this comes the Greek heritage. Although my family not be as bad as my Big Fat Greek Wedding, they sometimes get pretty close. I grew up Greek dancing, winning many awards for various Greek dancing competitions (yes they exist) and have met people from all over the country because of it. I also love to travel. I have been to Germany, France, Turkey, London and of course Greece. I spent most of my summer there this past year, and plan to go back again this summer. My high school life was pretty normal. My best friend and I had been in every class together since Second grade, and we were inseperable. I was also surrounded by many other friends (when the girls decided to stop all the unnecessary drama) and was involved with lots of different things. I was president of my schools Exceptional Children Buddies Club, and absolutely loved

working with special needs kids. I did my senior project on therapeutic riding and soon became heavily involved in that as well; combining my love of special needs kids and horses. I was also somewhat of an accomplished track and field athlete from the beginning of my career. I started running when I was 8, traveling all over for various track meets. By the time I was 12 I was a nationally ranked 400m sprinter, vowing never to run that race again. And quit the next year to gain my non-existent life back. After picking it back up in high school (and making a deal with my coach to only run the 400m if it was completely necessary, or I wouldnt run my other events), I finished my senior season with many awards and only having to run the 400m 7 times. I was a six time conference athlete champion (4x100m relay-4 years, triple jump-2), 7 time County champion, a 3 time regional champion in the 4x100m relay and also runner up for the triple jump. My team as a whole won 4 consecutive years for the conference championship. My relay team and I broke a 26 year old school record by literally 1 second (two runners on the former relay team went on to compete in the Olympics). To say the least, some of my fondest memories came from track. Thats about all I can come up with for now, Anastasia Davis