Like most grandpa’s my grandpa loves to fish and has those crazy fishing stories they always enjoying telling. Well my papa’s favorite story always starts out with “she’s my greatest catch yet.” When I was a little girl I would always go fishing with my papa in the summer. One hot summer day I wanted to go swimming, but we were too far out in the lake; so my grandpa tied my life jacket to a rope, and let me swim right outside the boat. I was having so much fun splashing and swimming in the water like all little kids do when I felt something pulling me in. I could hear my grandpa saying this is a big one. Next thing we know he’s reeling in me because his fishing line got caught on my life jacket and I was, and still am today my papa’s greatest catch. Being his only granddaughter he loves telling this fishing story.

     Being the only girl in the family there are a lot of people watching over me, and knowing my family background and having all the strong people that helped raise me I’ve grown up with many different role models, and have been taught all the morals and life lessons a little girl should be taught. That’s why it is hard for me to choose just one family member that has influenced my life. Being the only daughter of a single parent who gave birth to me when she herself was only a child I grew up with a lot of helping hands. My mother is the strongest woman I know. She managed to raise a baby, finish high school, and go to work. She has worked her entire life to provide for my little brother and I. She has given up so much so I could have the typical teenage lifestyle she gave up to raise me. I was a cheerleader, a dancer, I took gymnastic classes, I was a straight A student, and graduated in the top of my class. I couldn’t have done any of these things without my mother who gave up her life to provide for mine.

    Like me, my mother couldn’t have done any of this without her parents. My mom was only sixteen when she had me, so my grandparents helped raise me while my mom finished school and went to work. My grammy is more than a grandma to me. She is my second mom, a person I can tell anything too, and a person I can go to when my mother can’t be there. My relationship with my grandparents is not like most. Instead of seeing my grandparents every so often I see them multiple times a week, I go to church with them every Sunday, I go to dinner with them, or shopping with them. My grammy teaches me about money, and helps me with my bank account. My grandpa works downtown and stops to see me sometimes between classes on campus. My grandma came to every football, basketball game, dance performance, and award ceremonies with the rest of my family. She was even the assistant director of my dance company. My grandparents are like parents to me, and go above and beyond the typical grandparent expectation. Without my grandparents I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I do as they help me not only financially, but encourage me to keep going when I feel like giving up.