Me in 500 Words

When I was a kid, my parents would tell me that the reason they named me "Jon Crawford Lloyd Griffin" was because it would make great name for a senator. It always made me excited because it made me feel like I was destined for greatness. However, being five years old, the only senators I knew of were the Ottawa Senators (the NHL team). As I grew up, the dream of playing in the NHL began to seem less and less realistic, but a new passion began to blossom. 

My sisters and I at my high school graduation.

I was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina along with an older and younger sister. We grew up in the suburbs of North Raleigh, spending majority of our time outside playing with our neighbors. It was a special neighborhood (Stonemoor) filled with young families and kids the same ages as us; to this day, my family's closest friends are the ones we met in Stonemoor. Us boys spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours playing outside, specifically street hockey. 

It's a rare sight to see children playing hockey in the South, but not so much in NC.  NC has the Hornets and the Panthers, but the Canes are the only professional team that actually plays in Raleigh. In 2006, when I was only two years old, the Canes won in game seven of the finals to take home the Stanley Cup. My father, who had never seen a game until that year, fell in love with the sport and quickly became his favorite sport. 

Me waiting for a one-timer.

As far back as I can remember I've been playing/watching hockey. It was my dream to make the NHL. In high school I was invited by a three-time Stanley Cup Champion to play for his team. We were a very tight-knit group of guys that came from all over the state. We also happened to be a very good team. We won three-straight state championships and finished ranked within the top 30 of teams in the nation. To be honest though, I wasn't very good after ninth grade. My role on team was what we call a "locker room guy," or a "glue guy." Basically, I was just there to keep the vibes high. That's when I realized the dream was over. But as I said before, a new passion had already taken over.

In December 2016, my family got invited in for a tour of CNN's New York studio. At the time, my mother was the CMO of a software company that was sponsored with CNN, which is how we got access. While there, we were taken to see a live broadcast. On this set, there was a reporter that had a piece on Trump/Russia, but it wasn't from a credible source. The producer told them to run the story anyway, and after a few minutes, the story was on. I had just witnessed fake news live, from the source. 

I left that tour lingering with anger. It got even worse during COVID watching MSM lie about its origins, the vaccine, and labeling people as "murders" if they weren't vaccinated. I thought after a few years things would maybe return back to normal, but its only far worse. After years of waiting for change I got impatient and decided I would BE the change. 

Me posing on a set of CNN.