My name is Abbey Grace Venham and I’m a mass communications major and a tennis player at Piedmont college. I’m 18 years old and I’ve lived in Covington, Georgia my entire life with my mom and brother. Covington is a very small town and I went to a fairly small high school called Eastside High School. Most of my life, I’ve dedicated myself to tennis. I played competitive tournaments from the time I was 10 until I was 15 and then I decided I didn’t want to play competitively anymore. I was pushed extremely hard by coaches from various places in Georgia and tennis academy’s in the Athens area. Tennis became more work than play to me, so I took some time off and by the time I was a junior in high school, I was ready to put my skills to use again and try to get into a good school. Luckily, one of my coaches from my competitive days is friends with Trey Martin who is the head women’s tennis coach here at Piedmont. My coach Matt Williams reached out to coach Trey and gave him my name and after seeing Piedmont and meeting my teammates and Trey I knew that this school was perfect for me. The small town feel of Piedmont reminded me of my home town and it gave me lots of hope for my success in the future whereas if I had ended up at a big school, I would get lost on campus! I owe all of my greatest accomplishments and my proudest moments to my family. College tennis and Piedmont wouldn’t be possible for me had it not been for the unconditional support of my entire family. I do everything for my mom, brother, and grandparents. I came out to my family as a freshman in high school and our relationship was rocky for a while. As time went on, each and everyone of my family members not only showed their love and support to me, but their acceptance of who I was. I am extremely blessed to say that I have a family who accepts me and I understand that more than most people considering where I grew up and how my family was brought up and how they raised me. Family is most important to me and always has been. If I could, I would write this entire autobiography about them but that would be way too much for you to read, so I hope you get the gist. I can’t wait to see where the future takes me and I can’t wait to grow as a person here at Piedmont.