Growing up, I've always loved to fish. What's more fun than to play of guessing game of what bait and part of water will strike gold (or fish)? Typically, I always followed the same routine. Grab a tackle box, chair, hot dogs (for bait), and a pole. Proceeding that I would endlessly cast into the water not giving a second thought as to the process which gave me the pole that (with the help of other elements), brought me a fish. This is how I fish from the time I walked until I was about to turn 19. No thought, little effort, and a lot of fishing brought me joy.

Last week, my whole view of this process changed. When I pulled up to fish, my grandma had something far better than the poles bought from the store. Instead of running to the store after breaking yet another plastic fishing pole, a cane pole was presented to me. Hand crafted from cane, string, fishing line, and a hook, more love was in the pole than money could ever amount to. As I put it in the water, I thought about all the hard work and effort put into the pole that was in my hand. No reel necessary and less than five dollars spent, I caught more fish than ever before. As the bobber went up and down, I'd yank the fish out of the water. I had to smile knowing that the contraption my Grandma built brought in more fish than anything I'd fished with before. She then taught me how to make one of my own. It really is really true what they say, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.