How Has the Gulf Oil Spill Affected Me

I was asked recently how the Gulf oil spill affected me and that's a hard one. It was such a horrendous event. On one hand I didn't have it as hard as some people, especially those that are fisherman or depend on the Gulf of Mexico for their livelihood. On the other hand though, it affected almost everyone here. I live in Panama City, Florida and we depend on the Gulf for a lot of things, one of those being tourism.

Once the news hit the media people were bailing out of coming here left and right. Sure, some still came but our tourism here took a huge hit as did tourism in other states affected. Even though we did not have oil on our beach, just a few tar balls here and there, it trickled down to everyone. I lost business myself. I had a photo shoot to do that was canceled and there were a few businesses that actually closed so no websites either.

The point is, it doesn't matter who you are or what you do. If you live near the Gulf of Mexico then the oil spill affected you in some way or another.