So when I was little, we used, for some reason watched La Bamba like 100,000 times. Like every, I feel like Hispanic family did back then. And so growing up, like people would always ask you, like, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I didn't understand what, like, being famous meant. But I knew, like, Ritchie Valens was famous and I knew he had died young. And I thought that's what that meant. And so I would tell people, oh, I'm going to die young. And my parents were like, you have to stop telling people that, like, like friends of the family would be like mortified. Like, why is this like, little kid saying, like, he wants to die young?And I, then they were like, no, no, no, like, you mean like being famous, like you want to be like - and I was like, oh, okay.

And then luckily, my sophomore year I had a dear friend of mine that was auditioning. I said, what are you auditioning for? And she said, there's a production at the Amarillo Little Theater called West Side Story, and I'm going to go audition. And I went to Blockbuster Video, and I rented the VHS of West Side Story. I didn't know what it was. And I was like, wait a minute. Like, there's Hispanics in this that are singing and dancing like, I can do this. So I came with her to the auditions. And I got cast in the show and she didn’t. And I feel horrible to this day that she did not get cast in the show.

But that. that was, that was huge. That was a life changing event for me back in 1999 when I was 15 years old, walking into this building and auditioning and getting a part. Because then I thought, oh my gosh, like, I love this. This was so much fun. Told my parents so they came and saw it. They loved it. It was really fun.

And then full circle, though, are you ready for this? When I was 19 years old, so this was right, right out of college, I got to play Ritchie Valens in a musical called The Buddy Holly Story. And so that was a full circle for my parents because they were like, I love that when you were a little kid that you just wanted to die young, thinking that that meant be famous or do this, and then got to play. Back in the day. I mean, I look at those pictures and think, oh my God, when was I that skinny? And when, you know, I can't fit in those pants to save my life now. But that was, that was a really fun production to do. And, and I feel like that's when my parents were like, yep. Okay. You're meant to do this. This is this is something that you can excel in.