That I had to do everything for myself, all the time, in every way.

I’m indigenous Canadian and my parents basically grew up on their own in the wilderness. They basically just let is do anything and everything for ourselves on our own all the time.

I worked all the time as a kid … at first because I had to but eventually because I wanted to because my parents were like that. I followed by example.

I remember at one point as a teen taking part in project after project trying to get people to help, to take part, to share or to even just join me and make the work easier. It was always a pain to get help.

I remember arriving at a breaking point and I just started ignoring people and did enormous projects on my own. Often people would just see me struggle and help but more often than not they wouldn’t.

I’ve worked on my own ever since in building and construction … I got it to the point where I could literally build my own house from the ground up.