33.9172° N, 118.0120° W

The context of my blog is in allowing for me to express myself creatively, independently, and autonomously with what I find relevant to share on the web. This first post is simply an intro to my page on medium — enjoy!

I personally do not like the “who am I” question. It’s not for fear in lacking of an appropriate answer but rather I like to think of the “self” (identity) as a contested term. Since finishing my Master’s degree in the School of Communication at SDSU, I believe a lifetime of searching is necessary. So I’ll continue search.

The short answer is I am a 24 year-young professional from La Mirada, Ca.

Originally I was from South Gate, Ca. until my mama (yes, mama) decided to move us east toward the Orange County suburbs.

Elementary —

My brother and I were enrolled at Gardenhill Elementary school following the move. I attended Gardenhill during my 5th grade year so the transition was hard. Eventually I found my core group of friends.

Middle —

Following elementary I was a Hutchinson Hawk. I made a name for myself in sport (basketball, baseball, and football) and my identity soon became that of an “athlete”. I greatly accepted this role, as well as class clown.

True story is one of my teachers made a deal with me. The deal was to “help keep the class quiet” in return for a grade. Thanks Mr. 15th letter of the alphabet.

Go ahead, count on your fingers cause I know I did.

High —

Following Hutchinson I entered into what I thought were going to be the “best years of my life”. As I’ve grown older however I’ve realized that high school being the highlight of someone’s life seems very narrow.

Forwarding to my senior year and following my junior year transfer to La Serna, I returned to La Mirada with one goal — win a championship with my boys. College ball wasn’t even an option, and to be honest attending a University out of high school didn’t seem like much of one either. I hadn’t really planned that far ahead.

“How are your grades?”

This is the question my head coach asked me sometime shortly after our championship. Math-lete wasn’t necessarily my title in high school.

(Needless to say I learned how to be a student eventually …)

The second semester of my senior year at La Mirada was spent from 0–6th period. Traditionally seniors leave at lunch — not me. I was playing catch up. Feel free to watch my high school football highlight tape, nothing special.

June, July, Pueblo —

I completed ALL classes I needed to make up, took the ACT AND SAT, AND raised my GPA.

Some people say it couldn’t be done. Thanks Ms. 23rd letter of the alphabet. That’s a W.

Summer visit —

My parents and I flew to Colorado. This was somewhat of an easy choice — my second and strongest option for football was a school in Nebraska with a total population under 6,000 people

Not attractive for someone who is considered a people person. Although they did call me more than Pueblo …

College —

You’ll have to wait and find out!

If you feel like making any comment on this post, do so! Especially interested in anyone who was apart of this — Maybe you had a bigger impact on my story than you know? Maybe I could feature you on another story we were apart of?

• Connect Professionally or Socially. Thanks for making it this far!