I told my parents that I wanted to be like my grandfather before he started his landscape development company.
My mother’s father went to architecture school after being inspired by the gorgeous buildings he saw in Japan right after World War II when he was an Army Paratrooper.
He went to the big state university in the city where I was born, but he dropped out as a sophomore to start his own business. With my grandmother’s help and a small team of workers, he formed his initial business as a residential landscaper. His dreams were modest at the time, as he simply wanted to see his business through the path of success. As time went on and he obtained more clients, he reinvested the money he made directly back into the business itself. At first he was only doing residential landscaping, but soon he had commercial clients as well. Before he knew it, my grandfather was developing roads and plots of land for commercial and residential building projects. He created one of our city’s most beloved parks, although the name of the beneficiary is the one you will see on the sign these days. Right now I’m in an engineering class going over aspects of building and bridge development design, in particular rebar tie wire and concrete structures. It’s important for bridges, roads, and sidewalks to keep concrete from crumbling under the pressures of weight, weather, and humidity. Corrosion resistant steel rebar tie wire is important in places where the rebar is potentially exposed to water and salt, leading to rust in shorter spans of time.