North Hall High

Building a promising future through hard work

HUNTER STANSBURY, JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL

BY NATHAN BERG nberg@gainesvilletimes.com

Hunter Stansbury figured out at a young age that he likes to work with his hands.

As a kid, Stansbury would go over to his grandfather’s house and help out with whatever odd job needed to be done. Sometimes, the pair would fix something that was broken, and sometimes they would build something new.

During one of those visits, Stansbury, a Johnson High senior, decided he would one day start his own construction company. Now, he plans to pursue that dream after graduation.

“I would be doing that a lot, and I kind of got used to it and attached to stuff like that,” he said. “I was like, this might be something nice to do as a career when I’m a little older, because I’m a little familiar with it. I felt like it would be a good thing to do.”

Stansbury knew he would have to work hard to achieve his goal, so he decided he would start making it happen.

As a junior, in addition to a job at Hardee’s, he picked up a second job painting houses for his girlfriend’s father.

Working two jobs was difficult but nothing Stansbury couldn’t handle.

“I’m still young, so there was a lot I wanted to do, like go out, have fun with friends and buy stuff,” he said. “But I was like, do your job and school. I’ll give it a try and see how things go.”

Much of Stansbury’s motivation came from his parents.

His mother and father both dropped out of high school to better take care of him, he said. Whenever the pressures of school and work started to become overwhelming, Stansbury said he would just think of them and things would suddenly become more manageable.

“To me, it feels really good, because I know that they’re proud of me,” he said.

The stress of school and work were plenty to challenge Stansbury throughout his high school career, but his life was further complicated in the middle of his senior year when his mother, Robin, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“My first reaction was it was kind of shocking,” he said. “You never think it will happen to you.”

Stansbury immediately took over household responsibilities like grocery shopping, cleaning the house and making sure his 14-year-old sister stayed on top of her schoolwork. He even tried cooking on a few occasions, though admitted “that didn’t go very well.”

“I didn’t want anything to be hard on (my mom), or stressing her out over me and my sister doing anything wrong or messing up in school or anything, or her having to clean the house or anything,” I wanted to make sure all the stress and everything was off of her.”

Stansbury remained focused on school and received enough credits to graduate in December, becom ing the first member of his family to earn a high school diploma. He now paints houses full time while trying to earn enough money to start his construction business.

It’s been a difficult journey for Stansbury, but he said he is proud of how far he’s come.

“There were a couple times where I would get stressed out and it was like, ‘oh, I don’t want to do this,’” he said. “But I pushed through it all and I made it. It just feels good that I didn’t give up.” ‘There were a couple times where I would get stressed out and it was like, “oh, I don’t want to do this.” But I pushed through it all and I made it. It just feels good that I didn’t give up.’ Hunter Stansbury

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