The man that I knew as a contemporary transcendentalist was not, famous, or anything but that did not matter to him. This man’s name was John Starih. I met John when I was about eight years old in Michigan; he maintained a small farm with his brother across a sandy dirt road from my grandmother’s house. John was the proud father of three sons and a husband to his wife Rose. He drove a “new to him” 1996 F150, it wasn’t pretty but it got him around. John was the kind of man that didn’t need much to be happy, well he didn’t have much, but he would have gave you the shirt off his back in the dead of winter. I look up to John as almost a grandfatherly figure and he filled that void and more. John didn’t mind me hanging out with him because all of his sons were either in college or they had moved away. John’s brothers and sisters would say that he was part Indian; he is still to this day the most outdoorsy person that I have met. He could hunt, track, fish, or tell you anything you had a question about regarding nature. John was self-educated about nature since that’s where he grew up; he was raised outside of what was a small farm town in western Michigan. From what I remember he could talk on and on about being young, making his own bow and arrows and going on adventures with his brothers and friends in the rural landscape that surrounded their house. It always seemed I was tagging along with John to do his daily routine; we always drove around the old dirt roads and two tracks in a three wheel golf cart, we usually cut fire wood and did other things of this nature to help him prepare for winter, but the best part was no matter where we went he was always pointing out thing related to nature and why certain things happened in nature. I grew accustom to him pointing out this like this and I enjoyed it and eventually would pick his brain as I grew more interested in these topics. John never failed to amaze me with his simplistic nature and never ending knowledge. Today I still wish I could pick his brain for a few more answers now that I’m a little older. I knew John as family orientated man who ninety five percent of the time had a smile on his face. What I still find mind blowing today was when he passed away, at his funeral the number people that showed up. For being such an easy going simple man he had made quite an impact on other people’s lives. I also realized that there are different definitions of successful; you don’t always have to be a millionaire to have a perfect life. Being born, raised, and living in a small town with just over 4,000 people he had around 500 or so people come to his funeral. I realized I was lucky to know a man like John Starih, he made an everlasting impact on my life.