He’s always been an introverted person.

It all changed for senior Grant Griswold when he found himself on stage in front of hundreds of people. It was when he was playing his arrangement of the song “Redbone” by Childish Gambino on the guitar where the audience took their phones, turned on the flash and started waving them.

Griswold started officially playing guitar in fifth grade, but has always had a love for music.

“When I was younger [four or five years old], I used to mess around with it,” Griswold said. “Just playing with the strings, I didn’t know anything about it. I was just kind of drawn to it.”

Griswold started writing music during his freshman year, and sometimes he sings to accompany the guitar.

“I didn’t sing in middle school. I wasn’t really fully recovered from puberty yet,” Griswold said. “So it was a little rough at first, but I worked my way up a little bit.”

Sophomore year was a tough year for Griswold, because a close friend of his passed away. Since that friend did not go to the same school, Griswold felt he did not have many people to talk to.

“I kind of closed myself off a little bit,” Griswold said. “The only way I could get through it was writing about it. It was a good coping mechanism for me. From there I just kind of kept writing and writing. It definitely helped me deal with a lot of negative emotions in my life.”

It was around his junior year when Griswold came out of his shell and started to play in front of people.

“It was definitely a big step,” Griswold said.