My whole family that served always had a preference for the Air Force. My dad's dad was a pilot from 1962 to 1966, and my mom's grandfather served as a pilot during WWII. Sadly, my mom's grandfather was shot down in the war when her dad was a child. A very cool thing about my mom's grandfather is we were able to keep his trunk of stuff including his medals, and also the flag that was given to our family after he passed. I spend hours just looking at all the stuff, and pictures of the times back then. Last year I took a class about WWII with inspiration of my great grandfather fighting in the war. It was really enjoyable for me because not only did I learn about the war, but we also dove deep into the aircraft they used. In that class I felt an emotional connection as I knew one of the planes we talked about was what my great grandfather was flying when he gave his life for our beautiful country. Now to talk about my Grandpa since he was in the Air Force he always loved planes. When he got back he took up the hobby of making, and flying model planes. When I was a kid he always would take my brothers, and I out to watch all the planes fly. Every now and then he would let us fly them mostly my brothers as I was not the best pilot, and I crashed a few too many. The coolest part for me was not the flying, but seeing how he makes the planes, and the work that goes into it. His craft inspired me to be always want to learn how electronics work, and fix them. I hope someday to take up his passion for planes and hopefully this time I don't crash them. I also love my grandpa's stories about his time in the barracks. My favorite story of his was about this one woman in the barracks. He described her as the most muscular woman he had ever seen. What she would do is every time she would finish a drink she would crush it with her bare hands. Back then obviously women were a rare sight in the military especially in the air force then. Everyone in the barracks was amused by this he even said they started handing her cans just, so she could crush them. I am just proud to say my grandpa served this great country.

My teammates and coaches are what improved my character the most. Coming from a small school every coach at every level knew who you were and supported you endlessly. When someone gives you support like my coaches did, it makes you want to be better. This not only made me a better player, but also a person because I knew they would hold me accountable if I did something wrong, and cheer me on when I did something right. I learned how to be a leader sophomore year when I finally was on a team with my brother again who was a senior. I spent the year watching, and learning how he led. My junior year when my coaches named me captain I was honored as I knew they were putting a lot of trust into me naming me a captain as a junior. That year I not only saw my leadership on the football field change, but I also saw it in the classroom. I challenged myself with harder classes and stayed on top of my work to set an example for our players. Football was also a gateway into me doing community service where our coach always had optional opportunities for us to help out in the community after doing a few of events I felt good about myself, and really wanted continue to do more in the future. I just like seeing the smile on the peoples faces because I'm no perfect man, but when I do projects I feel Gods grace. One of my favorite events I did was one of my first. Eight of us from our team helped clean out an older lady's yard, so she could put a pool in. The smile on her face after we were done just made me feel good deep down just like when the Grinches heart grew three times larger. The most important impact football has had on me is it taught me that life can change quickly, so enjoy it. We are a smaller school, but faced a lot of tragedies the past few years. Last year we had one of our coaches pass away during the season it was hard to recover from that, and play the next week. This year was the most painful one of them all. One of my teammates whom I grew up with lost his dad. I was crushed as he was not just my friends dad but was also a coach to his son, and I for many years. The emotional pain I was going through was tough. A week before he gave me a big hug on senior night. I did not know, but that would be the last time I saw him. He always kept watching us though as a day before he passed he said to my dad that he can't wait to see us make a district championship game. All I wish I could say to him is WE MADE IT FOR YOU.