Influential People

Grandmother

My grandmother was one of the most influential people that I had ever met throughout my early years. Growing up my father and uncle were raised in a small trailer park in Ypsilanti by my Grandmother. My father and uncle made their way out of the trailer park as they grew in their old age but my Grandmother never did. She raised them by herself while dealing with several money issues along with abusive relationships as they would come and go. I would hear stories of how she would sometimes have to sell items in her house, just so that my father and uncle could have a christmas. The thing that people dont understand is that trailer parks used to be very nice, then as time went on people created a term of trailer trash because of the crowd they attracted. One thing I will always remember is the awful shape her trailer park was in. I would drive throughout the whole park looking at the way people didnt take care of the things they owned and then I would see my Grandmothers house. It would stand out because of the amazing condition she kept it in. She was so influential because of the fact that she didnt own very many expensive items, yet she would take so much pride in everything she had. She taught me that every item has a meaning behind it and if it doesnt, then it shouldnt matter. She was the person that got me hooked on the good oldies music. Her endless supply of records and other music had me fall in love with it. I spent most of my life with her, where she would take me to school and pick me up every day while my parents were off at work. One thing she told me that I’ll never forget, ” Nathan, dont ever steal from me. If you want something ask and I’ll give it to you. If you steal then I wont forgive you.” This was one of the several life lessons I learned from her throughout my years. Upon my Grandmas suffering throughout her life, she went on to get cancer from which she beat 3 times. Closer to the present, she got cancer for her fourth time. By now she was 71 and was 4’11 weighing 82 pounds. She had been tired and exhausted of fighting the cancer before and didnt feel she was capable of it again. I moved her into my house were she lived out her final day’s. Passing on October 3. 2018 my Grandma left me with one of the best stories Ive ever known, mine and her relationship. She told me not to be upset when she dies because we all do someday. She suffered her entire life and was now free and happy. She was truly the most amazing person and taught me to appreciate the little things. When thing I will never make a mistake forgetting is to not take anything for granted because you dont ever know how long you have in the world.

Greta Van Fleet

Greta Van Fleet is a rock band based out of Frankenmuth Michigan that first arose to the scene in 2015. By this point in my life, rock music had been at an all-time low and I had been listening to just about all of the good stuff previously. I had heard just about everything when one summer I heard a new band that had sounded very familiar. Their band almost exploded my mind with the cutting sharp voice, groovy bass riffs and a guitar style that could not be mistaken. Greta Van Fleet consists of 3 brothers; Josh Kizska, Jake Kizska, Sam Kizska and their friend Danny Wagner on the drums. When they first blew up in 2018 I remember the excitement that filled me because of the fact I was listening to something new that sounded old again. Yet despite their old and groovy sound, some people do not like the resemblence their music has to the older band Led Zeppelin. When Greta Van Fleet came out with their second album later in the year of 2018, several article columns tore them apart because they didnt like them. Pitchfork, a well known blog website had rated Greta Van Fleet a 1.6 out of 10. Essentially people wanted them to create their own sound and not copy Led Zeppelin. So when they did exactly that, people still were not happy with the outcome of the album. Yet Despite all of the hate that have been recieving lately, they are continuing to sell out every single show across the world doing what they love. One reason they are so inspirational to me is because of the fact they are doing what I want to do and they are my age. I heard how amazing music was when I was young and understood that I wanted to play it for the rest of my life. I have the belief that they experienced that same feeling and are actually doing something with it. Seeing them start from nothing to now winning grammy’s for their music is just inspirational to say the least. I can say that with their success it only pushes me to work harder at my dream.

Native Americans

My third pick for influential people is not a single person but a people as a whole that had been treated poorly and robbed countless times by the world. Since August 3rd, 1492, when Christopher Columbus had discovered North America the original people of the U.S had been pushed away to the bottom and no one was allowed to do anything about it. One of the several things that was so inspirational about them was their beliefs and composure for love and for the world. Even though they were being robbed of their land and mistreated, they could still find a way to appreciate their life and the life of nature. You had a people that had lived there for their entire lives, people who respected the enviroment, the animals, the people and did nothing to no one else. Then on the other side you had foreigner’s who poluted the world, tore down the eviroment, killed animals for fun and treated one another poorly. Since a young age my grandmother had been intregued by the Native American past even though she was not connected by any means. She would have indian pictures, stones and everything else you could possibly think of. In todays society some things are offered to Native Americans because of the mistreat that happened to their culture in the past. Things such as free college and so on. All I know is that the a free college will never be able to make up for the mistreatment of that people. They will always be inspiring to me because of the way the were taken advantage of. The times that they were backstabbed, killed moved and the list goes on. Their composure and self peace is something I truly wish to aquire as I grow old. I feel this history serves as a lesson that can be used for several things other than people.