My Great Grandfather

Aaron D. Thomas
9.11.07
Intro to Lit

My Great Grandfather

I’d have to say my great grandfather’s death was a life changing experience for me because he meant so much to me. I use to look up to him a lot because he was a positive role model and was awfully wise. The majority of the community came to him for guidance and advice. Just being the leader that he was brought a great sense of pride to me.
When I first heard of his death I became utterly shocked and speechless. I didn’t know what to do, I felt terrible but I should’ve expected it because he was getting pretty old. Even still I felt horrible because he was gone and I wouldn’t ever see him again. Than I began to think about all the good times we spent together and the things he taught me about my culture and how he would always treat me out. Everything he taught me I’m positive I will never forget. Such as where I come from and my culture.
For about a week I just mopped around and thought about him. It wasn’t until the end of the week I started to recover from the blow and began to get back to my normal self. Things started to become exceptionally better and about a week later I started to reflect back on him and how everyone loved him because he was always looking at negative circumstances in an upbeat manner. Than that moment changed my life. I realized that I wanted to be just like him, I wanted to be strong minded and positive and an all around good guy.
So from that day forward I strove to look at all types of situations on a bright note and concentrated on school tremendously. I read more, focused on finishing all my schoolwork no matter how complex, and participated in class to a much greater extent. Eventually, a lot of amazing things started to happen. I was building my vocabulary and doing great on quizzes from all my subjects. Overall I just became better at things.
I believe much of what I do these days is all thanks to my great grandfather. I learned that pondering over his death wasn’t a good idea and from it the whole experience changed my life in a positive manner. Nowadays when I look back at that time I’m surprised because I would have never expected the outcome to be the way it turned out. Still I wish he was around to talk to and ask for advice and things like that. But I know if he was here today and saw the individual I’ve become I know he would have been proud and jubilant.
One teaching I will never forget is when he told me never to give up. No matter what your doing he would always tell me never to quit but to always try my best even if it was pitiful. Just those little things he would tell me create a huge impact on my life and I will forever remember him for it.