“I love my friends; they’re super important to me. I become a little protective ‘mama’ about my ‘babies’. My friends do so much for me, and they probably have no idea how much they mean to me. Sometimes they feel like they need someone to help back them up, or they need some support. For everything that my friends have done for me, I feel like I want to give that back to them.

One time my friends and I were at a football game, and I didn’t know this person who was being picked on. They were being made fun of; they looked very dejected, sad, and helpless. I went up to this girl, and I was just like ‘Are you okay? Would you want to come sit with us?’ and she said, ‘No.’ By then, the people who were picking on her had walked away. She ended up saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s a time that really sticks out for me because looking back, I wish I could have had a person who maybe would have stuck up for me or would have said something when I didn’t have the courage to. I guess seeing that girl provoked an emotion in me saying, ‘No, that’s not right’.

My parents are amazing. They are probably the biggest influence in my life. A lot of the things about learning how to stick up for people [are things] I learned from them. Ever since I was young, my mom and my dad taught a lot about being nice and kind to others. They know a lot about giving back.

My parents actually traveled around with the Grateful Dead. For a summer they just followed them around and went to a bunch of concerts; some Phish ones too. My father is the biggest Dead fan ever. He has so many sweatshirts and stickers and all the concerts taped. In my basement, we have three-hour audio recordings of a lot of Grateful Dead concerts. Whenever there’s a concert my mom and my dad have to live to stream it, even if its in somewhere like Australia.

I’ve been around the music for so long. So many people have a smell of a cookie or a blanket that reminds them of their childhood. When I hear the Grateful Dead it’s like I’m back to when I was three years old and listening to it. When I was younger, for my dads birthday cards, I would draw the turtles or the bears. A lot of what the Grateful Dead teaches is just peace and free love. I think a lot of that has influenced me to treat others the way I want to be treated. I definitely feel connected to the music in a weird way. But I don’t think my love for them could ever rival my parents.”

(Junior)