(Written by Frank Martin)

Every student that attends or has attended UGA has a moment when they realize they have finally found their place in a new home.

When I’m not creating videos and social media graphics with the UGA football staff, coaches, and players, I give tours to prospective students for the Visitors Center. The one piece of advice that I always tell high school soon-to-be graduates is to GET INVOLVED, no matter what college they attend.

I encourage others to find something they enjoy and pursue it. I have been amazed to learn in my own experience how many people I have met that have affected my life through doing what I love: filmmaking. The more you get involved in a community, the more doors and opportunities open to you. And on that note, before I say anything else, I want to mention that everything I have been able to do is because of all the people I have met in my life.

The work I do is for this amazing community—friends and family I will always consider to be more important than myself.

I can only hope that everything I do will be, in some small way, a means of giving back to the many who have given me so much. When I was asked to create a story for The Wish Dish, I wanted to share the exact moment when I felt I had found a home here at UGA and highlight the people in my life who have guided me to every achievement I have ever accomplished.

It was a Friday afternoon in September. I had just released the “Awaken the Nation” video to be played before the LSU game.

In only hours, the video took off acquiring tens of thousands of views. By Saturday, the video had already accumulated nearly 200,000. I was stunned. I got countless messages from friends and family reaching out to say how much they enjoyed the video. People I didn’t even know (some from all over the world) took the time to let me know how they were in some way affected by my work.

Now, I can’t pretend to take all the credit. The football game itself was exciting enough. For that day and the days following, I developed a special connection with Athens and the Bulldog Nation.

People created signs containing excerpts from my script and some dedicated fans even painted their stomachs with letters that spelled out “Awaken the Nation.” In addition, Nike reached out to UGA to let us know they were going to start creating merchandise based off the video. I had only dreamed of something like this. It was one of the most humbling moments in my life.

When the video played at Sanford Stadium the next day in front of a sold-out stadium, all 92,746 people went silent.

You could hear a pin drop. And then, just as quickly as they were silenced, the crowd erupted. I was elated, but honestly I believe that to be an understatement. It was a feeling that words could never accurately describe.

I just couldn’t believe this was all happening. Our football team went on to defeat LSU that Saturday. As I watched the team unite under one cause, fight for each other, and fight for their community, I realized I had finally found my place, my people, my home.

I have created videos for football for the past 7 years (beginning my freshman year of high school) and I could easily write a novel on the importance of sports and particularly football.

Whether you like the sport or not, I think everyone can appreciate what football does for our community. No matter who you, every Saturday in the fall, you’re a Bulldog. That’s something that’s especially important in our world today—finding the things that unite us.

I truly believe that football—and sports in general—can be a means of uniting us all.

It reminds us that we’re all here to celebrate each other. Football reminds us that there’s a home for everybody, even a kid with a love for cameras like me.

I am indebted to the sport of football and to UGA for the memories and opportunities they have given me—and most importantly for the people each of these institutions has brought into my life.

I’ve included a video I created (and later updated) last year entitled “The Georgia Way.” In doing so, I hope that it captures the importance of this special community and all the people I have met who continue to guide and shape my life.