What’s Happening To The Family?

My family and I moved to the Metro Detroit Area after our house had caught fire in Traverse City taking refuge with my grandparents as my mother navigated our situation. In 12 years we had relocated 3 times forcing me to adjust and make new friends each step along the way as the perpetual “new kid”. After this final move we planted our roots in Romeo and took it one day at a time slowly overcoming one challenge after another. Growing up with a single mother and little brother was difficult but a blessing in disguise as the need to grow up fast lead me to develop work ethic and independence at a young age. Though it worked for me I am the minority in these cases as statistics show outcomes for children with single parents are not only unfavorable but devastating for my generation. The dissolution of the family and the incentivization/subsidizing of single parenting is possibly the most important issue of our times and one in which has only been exacerbated by government interventionism.

Blue Collar Backbone

While living in the suburbs of Romeo my family made the daily commute to Chesterfield to build our business started by my grandfather. When we were kids we would do odd jobs around the factory cleaning/organizing things for some allowance while growing up around many gritty hard working people. Until I turned 14 and wanted to be able to buy my first car and had to become a gritty hard working person myself every weekend. Finally after getting the car I was able to get co-op hours out of high school to work in the factory and continued to do so for about 5 years all the way through community college until I went away to Central Michigan University. Those 2.5 years gave me the opportunity to make some of my dearest friends and learn what life away from home was like amongst my peers. Though I’m grateful for my experience I’ll never forget what it was like working blue collar jobs and I have great respect for those who continue to work them as they are the real backbone of America. Small business owners, farmers, contractors, plumbers, carpenters, construction workers, manufacturers and tradesmen/women are who built this country from sea to shining sea. Independence and ingenuity are the soul of our nation and it’s time that we reclaim that soul from the politicians and corporatists who sold it out from under us.