PROFILES
Carrying the Weight of the World on his Board
17 year old Julian Craw deals with the stress of being a high school senior in a way that most people don’t know how to do.
By: Isabella Hool
Quarantine opened up all kinds of new doors for many people but in Julian Craw’s case, it opened an attic door. In April of this year, when COVID was at its peak, along with teenage boredom, new hobbies were everywhere. Craw went searching for something to do one day when he came across his father's skateboard in the attic. After trying it only a few times, he fell in love with the board. Skating became the number one stress reliever in Craw’s life. Feelings can be expressed through a whole new light in the skate world. “I can express what I’m doing, how I’m feeling in the way that I skate. If I am in a mood, skateboarding distracts me from what's going on in my head” said Craw.
The skateboarding world has many legends just like any other sport. Many young kids from the 1980s have gone down in history for creating tricks that teens today would kill to master. The Bones Brigade documentary was a great film that showed skateboarding celebrities in their prime, including Craw’s biggest inspiration, Lance Mountain. “He gave skateboarding a different meaning, not just about competing. He showed that skating is supposed to be fun.” Lance Mountain was a creative skater and Craw wishes to follow in his steps and hopefully create his own tricks someday.
The skateboarding started when his junior year was cut off and now he’s perfected it through the beginning of his senior year. Being a senior in this crazy world today, there are a lot of things to be done but Craw seems to be fortunately okay with the changes in his senior year. “I feel like I’ve already graduated, but I haven’t. I am just ready to be done with highschool so I’m glad it’s going by very easy. I want to move on”. Becoming an adult comes with a lot of change, just like highschool. Most people are very different from their freshman year by the time they graduate. Craw has had a few personal struggles in his life but overcoming them just made him who he is today. “I used to be someone that wasn’t known or was known as someone’s friend. I was never my own person. I was always trying to be someone else, trying to fit in with people that I didn’t fit in with.” Over this past year he has created a great amount of growth with creating new friendships and skateboarding. Craw has become his own person and he is more than proud. “I finally started getting known for being me, Julian, not a friend of someones.”
Family Friendly Phoenix
“A place that kids can have fun and still do well”
By: Karsten Sabo
Competitive gymnasts have awed crowds with their aerial grace for decades now, and in more recent years, the sport has gained popularity from young girls who hope to make the Olympics. We see the shimmering leotards and the performances executed with precision, but what goes on during practices? Patrick “Coach Pat” Hannan, owner of Phoenix G.E.M.S. Gymnastics, was tired of seeing the athletes treated poorly.
“My own kids as well”, Hannan said, “ She would come home crying. And their coaches, I would watch screaming at the kids, and I just didn’t like that. And I said, ‘Well, there’s gotta be a place that kids can have fun and still do well.’ We looked around, and talked to people. We really didn’t find much, so that’s when I decided that we’re gonna open our own [gym] and be a little bit different than anybody else.”
The gym has been open since 2007, and Hannan’s goal of being “a little bit different”, is shown very clearly during practices. “We wanted to put families first, not money first. We like to treat the kids like they’re part of our family. We like to know the families that are in the gym,” he explained when asked what the main difference was in comparison to other gyms in our area.
At Phoenix, teammates aren’t just teammates, they’re a second family. For at least ten years, on Thursday nights, the gymnasts would drag chairs around a folding table, and eat dinner together. “I put a lot of hours in the gym. And I don’t think anybody doesn’t know that I was here every day, working and getting everything ready. Where, I would bring in a crock pot so I could have dinner, because I didn’t go home ‘til ten or eleven o’clock at night a lot of times. So I’d bring a crock pot here in the morning, and I cooked dinner, and we had a gymnast at the time, “Can I have some of that? It looks good.” Absolutely. [And other girls would say] “Oh I want some too.” So we end up giving away a lot of food that I would bring. So that’s where the team dinners came in. We had decided to bring it for the whole team, and then when everybody gets to sit down and they have dinner and they eat together, it really starts creating that family bond”, Hannan said.
This gymnastics family isn’t exclusive to the Phoenix gymnasts though. Hannan will also schedule practices with the team at Bounce Gymnastics, with their coach, Shane. “We always went to [the] Grand Rapids meet. They had one of the best meets around, and I watch kids at meets. Not just our team. I watch other kids to see how they’re doing, and then I would go talk to those coaches and be, “Hey, what camps do you guys do?” and “What do you do for that [skill]?” I’d ask a bunch of questions, and Shane told me the one time, “Well, you know, we don’t go to a whole lot of camps, sometimes we go to Flip Fest or something”, and I said, “Well, you guys are a big gym, so do you hold a camp?” And he said, “No, why? You want to do one?” And I said, “Yeah, let’s do a camp”, and he said, “Alright, we’ll do a camp this summer together.” So we started the camp I think ten or eleven years ago”, Hannan explained.
Gymnastics is an individual sport, but it’s also a team sport at the same time. Hannan hopes that by doing camps and practices with other gyms, Phoenix won’t only cheer for their own teams, but they’ll cheer for the friends they’ve made from the other gyms as well. “You have a lot of other teams out there, and the coaches will [say], “You don’t cheer for them. They’re not us. Why would you do that?” If you can’t cheer for somebody to do their best, that’s not right. So [we] get with the other gyms in the area. I enjoy doing field trips to places, and the kids enjoy it [too].”
“Everyday In My Field Is A Different Day”
Erika’s Adventure As A Nurse
By: Faith Haddon
Walking into the building hearing feet pounding, hushed whispering, faint coughing in the distance is an everyday occurrence for Erika Haddon. Hearing the sounds of a baby being born or the tears of a loved one going through a rough time is a constant in her life. But now she has bigger priorities than the job she loves.
“I am a nurse practitioner and I work for a cardiologist. So I take care of people with chest pain that could possibly be a heart attack,” Erika replied when asked about her career choice. Erika started off as a nurse and has now been in the medical field for over 20 years. She has grown an interest from her younger years when she would watch her mom go off to work as a nurse. She loved to learn new things. Erika wanted to help people constantly to make sure they were okay before asking herself which is why nursing fit the role for her perfect job.
At the beginning of her perfect career she had a lot of motivation to go to work everyday. “I was excited to start off a new career, I was excited to learn, to understand different things.” Erika slowly found as she got older her job wasn’t as important as other things going on in her life, “Well when I started my career I was a lot younger and I didn’t have children. So it was easier to go off to work and not worry about other things. So now I still enjoy my job but it's not my priority where being a mother and wife is more important.” She loves what she does, but she is happiest and content when she’s with her family.
Although Erika’s job isn’t her number one priority she gets to work with many familiar faces everyday and new faces constantly. She finds herself always curious when she checks her patient list for the day. “I think that everyday in my field is a very different day because I meet people of all ages. Not necessarily children but anywhere from 19 to as old as 100.” She relates her work to “A revolving door of interesting findings.” Everyday she finds out new stories from the most fascinating people. Although she wakes up everyday and does the same thing she believes it's nice to get to work and have an opportunity to meet new people.
During this hard time at COVID-19 hit the United States Erika continues to go to work everyday of the week. “Well it's become more cautious and a little fearful. It was an unsafe working environment at the beginning. My fear was bringing anything home to my family. I just had to take those steps to stay safe.” She expresses it’s been hard to watch the constant patients coming. Now she feels safer as the hospital has taken big precautions. Watching as the patient numbers in that unit have dropped has given her a sense of relief.
One of the main reasons she loves what she does is being able to make someone's life easier on them especially during this time. “I love what I do, I feel that everyday I have the opportunity to make someone feel better, to feel safe. To let the patients know that someone does care about them is a good feeling.” The patient's mood always affects how she feels throughout the day. Putting smiles on the patients' faces no matter the pain they go through is a great feeling that she wouldn’t change.
Carl Spaniola
The Man Who Doesn’t Push Back
By: Xaden Lacina
Known as the Rubber Band Man, he sits down, lights a cigarette and exhales a cloud of smoke. His name is Carl Spaniola. A local Flint musician who plays in the band ‘Super Horn Dog’, and runs the oldest business in Flint: Paul’s Pipe Shop. For Carl, music has always been a big part of his life. So to start off from the very beginning we need to find out when he first started playing.
“Oh jesus. Young. I got my first acoustic guitar when I was five…. I just couldn’t get it down so I switched to bass when I was 10 or 12 because the strings were too small” said Carl. He said he had made a mess of guitar even though he had took lessons. When he switched to bass that is when he realized that was his instrument.
Carl’s music journey did not end there though. He has been playing music for over 30 years at this point so there must have been something that has kept him going for this wrong. .... There is nothing to really pinpoint. It’s just music, the love of music. It’s just something that’s in all of us.” says Carl. Music is just something that everyone experiences whether or not you want to. It's always going to be there because it is such a large part of human culture. A world without music is truly a world without joy.
His current band Super Horn Dog, formed between the years of 2015 and 2017 it consists of Carl, the guitarist Mark Hawkins, the drummer ‘Ant Man’, and the vocalist Greg Brown. “Me and my guitarist Mark Hawkins, who I've known for 30 plus years. When I came back from Florida I suckered him into playing in a band with me….” But the question to ask now is what kind of music they play. As Carl described it, it is called “Funkadelic Punk Rock Hardcore.” A very interesting group of genres to mash up and call music. But by labeling it this it makes it easier for them to explore different sounds outside of the same old Punk Rock scene they have been a part of since the late 80’s. The way they come up with new songs is also a little different. As Carl said “Generally it’s all by accident. When I went to Mark I only had about 3 songs…. It was usually just warming up with those three songs we would come up with 2 more ideas and so on.”
On a different note, Carl’s family has owned one of if not the oldest business in Flint: Paul’s Pipe Shop. “ But my grandfather did not actually start in Flint. He didn’t come down to downtown Flint until about 1942” Running the one of the oldest shops in Flint Michigan is one of the most interesting things about Carl’s life. He works with his father Dan Spaniola who has won multiple awards for pipe smoking. Carl and his father also see tons of people from all aspects of life come into the shop. “We get ‘em all!” Carl exclaims. They get homeless people who are looking to warm up in the colder months and want to bum a cigarette, to the firemen who buy cigars, to even the mayor of Flint! “The mayor came in and had never smoked a pipe before and wanted to start, so I took about an hour to an hour and a half to set him up.” Even after almost 100 years in business the pipe shop is going better than ever and still offers cool experiences for Carl Spaniola.
Motivation and the Challenges
By: Eden Eisenbeis
Self motivation is one of the strongest mental mindsets to have. Self motivation is the mindset that gives you the drive to become a harder worker, friend, and person. Self motivation comes with a lot of challenges, like staying positive. Challenges are a part of everyday life and self motivation helps overcome those annoying day to day tasks. Mackenzie Boillat overcomes day to day challenges with self motivation and determination.
¨I'm a fast learner.” Kenzie said as we were talking about what makes her unique. ¨You have to be a pretty fast learner, and a pretty fast person in general. Especially the baristas.” I joked. When you're working as a boba barista it is very important that you are fast and sufficient.
¨What motivates you?¨ I asked Boillat. ¨My inner self.¨ She responded. You have to be a super confident, smart, and well rounded person to have or to even know your inner self. While we were talking about what she's passionate about Boillat said, ¨I'm passionate about helping people and getting my education.”
As we got deeper into the interview and conversation I was curious about why she wanted to work here. ¨Why and when did you decide to work here? There are so many other jobs in Grand Blanc, what makes this place so special?¨ I asked. ¨I started working here a little bit over a year ago, because I love the environment and I love bubble tea. Just a really happy place, I figured I could help out.¨ She responded. Working at Bubble Bee Tea is a different job experience from working at your local fast food or drink shop. It's such a beautiful environment with really cool workers.
As we were talking about the future I asked her what were her goals for the crazy future ahead of us. ¨To graduate with my masters degree and become a teacher.¨ Mackenzie said. Boillat is such a self driven, confident, and positive person so I knew she would say something like that.
Everyone has weaknesses and strengths so I decided to ask Bolliat what are some of her strengths. ¨My strengths are helping people and having self motivation.¨ She responded. ¨What does a typical day for you look like?¨ I asked. ¨Well I wake up, I get ready, I go to school, then I go to work, and then I go home and do homework.¨ Bolliat added on.
As a barista you can get into some tuff situations, so it's super important that you know how to handle them. Bolliat said she is good at handling bad situations especially since she's shift supervisor. I asked her, ¨How she is good at handling situations like that?¨ ¨I just know what to do and I always know how to do the right thing even if some things are hard, It's just like a challenge to myself to overcome it.¨ She responded.
¨The final question is how would you describe yourself in one word?¨ I asked her. ¨Passionate¨ She responded. I did expect an answer like this because in order to enjoy anything like work or even a hobby, you have to be super passionate about it.
Moving On From The Past
By: Emma Antkowiak
Everyone has their own share of hardships in their lives, nobody is perfect. Everyday we make choices on what we do which impact our future we create, whether we decide to do this or don't do that it's all our decision. For Bryan Antkowiak he realized that he had a bunch of problematic actions that cost him his youth. From the struggles of a poor farm boy to teen dad to loss of a loved one.
“Growing up north on a farm was a big challenge, there were lots of animals so a lot of mess that always needed to be cleaned up and I grew up very dirt poor so I wasn’t handed anything when I was younger, I was also bouncing around homes through different family members, it was not easy , me being a kid.” Antkowiak explained. He has had to deal with struggles since the day he was born, but that has still not stopped him from being the best he could be.
“I was also a teen Dad at a very young age, I didn’t have a positive role model in my life that kept me in line. I had to work picking up rocks from a corn and bean
field making $4 dollars an hour to pay for diapers and hospital bills at the age of 16/17. That made me learn to have to work hard for what you need, and to appreciate everything that I did have.” Antkowiak stated as he was reminiscing the days back then. He was a very motivated and troubled teen just trying to do what he had to do.
He got into some trouble while he was trying to make as much money possible for his child on the way and girlfriend at the time. Antkowiak started selling drugs to make ends meet, and this went on for a while until he started facing some problems. After countless road trips across the state and parts of the country picking up products one of his buddies got caught with a supply. After this incident he realized that he could no longer be following the dark path and decided he needed to make money in a different way when he got caught with the struggle of jail/prison time almost appointed to him.
Antkowiak had another struggle that still affects him with grief to this day. He never expected anything like this to happen and he still thinks about ways he could have helped his best friend out 15 years later. “I lost my best friend who was actually also my best man in my wedding to suicide. I hooked up my best girlfriend and my best guy friend together and they were together for a while, but after their break up he took his own life.” Antkowiak spoke about this devastating tragedy and how that is one of the main reasons that keeps him fighting everyday to be a better and stronger person. He shows and lives his life with his best man looking down and watching over him, wishing he was here to enjoy all of this with him.
Antkowiak has been continuously working on making a better and brighter future for all of his children while dealing with his own battles to make him a better person. This shows incredible strength from such a young age dealing with so many things. Antkowiak talks about his accomplishments of having a nice house and nice vehicles and a healthy family, and having a stable income job. He has definitely shown others there is a bright future awaiting those who put in the hard work.