Teenagers often spend their summers working as lifeguards or even concession stand workers, but junior Miles Smith spends his summers working on cars. His grandpa plays a big role in his passion for cars, since the age of 4. 

“My grandpa has a body shop that he started, so eventually I want to take over on that,” Smith said. “I’ve been working there pretty much every summer, so I know what’s going on.”

Smith has always had a close relationship with his grandpa, visiting him every weekend talking about what’s going on in their lives. His grandpa has always been into older cars, so whenever he saw a good deal on Facebook Marketplace, he went to go buy. Thanks to the use of Facebook Marketplace and his grandpa’s taste in cars, Smith was able to get his first car. From a young age his grandpa has allowed him to share memorable events that changed the way he viewed his life.  

“Whenever I was young, he took me to one of my first drag races,” Smith said. “A bunch of cars lined up and go down the race track. That was pretty cool. First time I’ve seen a car go 300 miles an hour.”  

Despite the unexpected split between his parents, he said having his grandpa meant he always had someone to keep him company. Doing the things they enjoy together — whether they were casting lines at dawn or tracking deer through the woods — those adventures became their own kind of fun. 

“I used to live in southern Missouri, about an hour away from here,” Smith said. “I was pretty close to my grandpa, so every weekend after school on Friday my mom would take me down there to the farm, and we would go fishing and hunting and stuff.   

Outside of fishing, hunting and cars, there was one thing Smith struggled with. 

“Algebra, I hate that class. It just doesn’t make any sense to me, I don’t understand any of the variables,” Smith said. 

 But there’s that one thing that does make sense to him, inherited from his grandpa.  

“There’s something about cars that just makes sense to me,” Smith said. “I can’t do something without my hands. I’m a hands-on kind of guy.”   

Although things happen in life, Smith had a message for his future self. 

“I would tell myself to hang in there, even whenever stuff happens and goes wrong,” Smith said. “Stay positive and get through whatever happens.”