Biographic Information: English, Male, 22yrs
Themes: Biographical information (where participant is from), Growing up in Guam, Moving from Guam to Las Cruces, Participant’s likes and interests (cars (driving, racing, etc.), traveling, rock climbing, parkour, music (artists, genres, concerts) foods, etc.), Participants experience in school, Participant’s family, relationships, pets
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Transcript:
[00:00]
Interviewer: Alright, where are you from?
Participant: Um, so I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And then I moved here. And I lived in cruces for a little bit. And then I moved to Guam, which is a territory of the United States. And then I moved back here. And now I live in El Paso, Texas.
I: Nice, so why did you move to Guam?
P: My dad works for NASA-, well, he doesn’t work for NASA. He works for a subcontractor of NASA. So we moved out there so we can work on the satellite dishes and stuff like that. So yeah.
I: Nice. Do you have? Do you have lots of fond memories from Guam?
P: Yes. So, I actually don’t remember anything from before Guam. My first memories were in Guam. So that’s like, mainly what I remember. And then I remember moving here. Also took your pen. I’m sorry.
I: That’s ok.
P: I was fiddling with it.
I: I don’t really need it. So, you’re fine. Um, so tell me about it. Tell me about Guam.
P: It is Hawaii but poor. (laughs) Right. So it’s like uh, lots of kind of uh, kind of destroyed buildings, big ol Air Force bases on the island. Um, lots of jungle, a lot of jungle. It’s so small. You could probably walk around in a day. Lots of beaches? The natives and people who live on the military base love going to the beaches? So yeah,
I: I guess I’m not familiar with geography. Where is Guam?
P: Oh, it’s in the middle of the ocean, literally just in the middle.
I: Sweet. All right. So, when you moved back, you came back to Las Cruces?
P: Yeah. yeah, yeah yeah. So, when we move back, we move back to Cruces. And I lived here, all the way up until like, two years ago ish. And then I moved. So.
I: Alright, so tell me about that change from Guam to Las Cruces? What was that, like?
P: Um, it was a really weird change cause I was used to, like trees and grass and a very, very tight knit community where you can just like, go outside and play with the neighbor kids safely and your parents didn’t have to worry about it. And then you moved here and it’s like, oh, probably don’t leave the neighborhood. You know what I mean? Um, additionally, everything here is dead and brown. So that’s nasty. No more palm trees. No more crabs. No more cool things like that. No more swimming.
I: No more swimming. That one’s a bummer. Okay, I’m gonna go back a little bit because I’m, I was interesting. Growing up in that freedom, do you have any cool stories?
P: Not really, umm. Our, our house was like, you could go out front, right? And you can play in the street literally, because we lived in a cul de sac. So we’d like go outside and ride bikes in the cul de sac, but we couldn’t go like our backyard was fairly large. And we had a tall wall around it. And it’s not because we were rich or anything is because like over there the jungle is like really dangerous, right? We hav-, you have a lot of javelina you have a lot of like, massive snakes and massive spiders that are absolutely going to kill you. So we have like a giant wall around our backyard. So our backyard was nice. And it was big, but you couldn’t like as a child venture out into the jungle because you probably get killed.
I: Did you ever want to venture out into the jungle?
P: Oh, yeah. I want to visit as an adult so I can actually do that.
I: Nice.
P: Yeah, you’d be like walk I’ve heard stories. And I’ve I’ve seen like giant spider webs like bigger than a doorway. And so if you walk into that, but not Yeah, not fun.
I: So I’m guessing you’re not afraid of spiders?
P: Ah, I don’t really like bugs at all. I’m, I’m less- and this is weird. I’m less scared of spiders than I am of like grasshoppers. I don’t like grasshoppers. I hate grasshoppers. I don’t have any memory of grasshoppers until I moved here. And then it was like just miserable, because that’s all they have here. Like that’s it. And so it was just like, they’re nasty. They’re nasty-, can i? can i cus?
I: Yes, yes.
P: They’re nasty little fucks. Um, but like, and like as a kid I remember playing with a lot of bugs. Or like crabs, especially because like when we’d be on the beach. You could like they had tiny crabs and big crabs. You could like fuck around with them and shit. But like around here, I hate the bugs around here. They’re so gross and nasty and creepy. So like I’ll get close to spiders more so than a grasshopper. Still scary, depends on the spider too, some spiders like gross. I’d be more chill with like, getting up close to a black widow than like, uh, what is it called a camel spider. Have you seen them? They’re so nasty, or like Wolf Spiders. Those things are disgusting. I hate those things.
I: I can’t say that I know for sure, but are they the white fuzzy ones?
P: No. I’ve had a couple. I think they’re called Camel spiders. I don’t remember. But like, we’ve had several in my apartment recently, and I had Joseph on the phone with me and soo he heard me like screeching then throwing things at the spider and it was all running around on the walls. So yeah, I don’t I don’t particularly like bugs in general. You know what I mean? Although spiders I’m more chill with and like, other things that you guys have here.
I: Did you end up killing that spider?
P: Yeah, no, it dies. I don’t stop until it dies. Same thing with uh, I think, I’m fairly sure I’ve had just found the phone with me every single time a bug has been in my house. Cause there was another time there was a scorpion in my house. And it was the same deal. It was just apparently, fun fact, uh, wasp killer just doesn’t kill scorpions. They don’t care at all. So I had to like take a frying pan and I was like, just beating on it until it died.
I: How big is that scorpion?
P: It was like that big. But it was one of the nasty white ones that are like the most poisonous ones or whatever. So I was like, nope, nope, nope, nope. And the only reason I saw it is because my cat Yuki was all, and just staring at it. I was like, What are you looking at? And I like, they were like, in a pair of pants and I like picked up the pair of pants and I went like this. I was like, I freaked out. So.
I: What about centipedes?
P: Eww no, no. Joseph’s house right now is full of centipedes and I hate that. I hate everything about that. No. uh uh, nasty. die. Death.
I: Yeah there’s lost the centepiedes at my house.
P: That’s, that’s awful. I don’t know how people do that. That’s that’s one of the reasons I like si-, living on the second level of an apartment. Because it’s like, you know, it’s nasty. Although we have a lot of wasps in El Paso, so.
I: So, El Paso. Do you have to commute a lot? Do you come into town very often?
P: With the exception of this week. Now, I usually come into Cruces two times a week for the classes I teach you at.
I: Nice.
P: So, Wednesday and Saturday, uh and I usually come down teach my classes and then go back. Unless there’s like some sort of special event because like, Jenna, Joseph’s girlfriend does gigs and so like I’ll come down for the gigs or to play pool with Widow or whatever it is. So yeah.
I: Nice so do you like driving?
P: I do. I really like driving. Driving is like one of my, I’m a car guy. I like I, I love driving. It’s been my dream since I was like a little tiny child, “I wanna drive”. So as soon as I was ol-, literally I, I was like, knew, I knew how to drive before I was 15. And like on my 15th birthday, I got my license. I took the class before I was allowed to and it lined up perfectly for me to get my license like on my birthday. So I’ve been driving like as long as physically possible. So yeah.
I: Sweet, do you remember when you learned how to drive?
P: Yes. Ummm my dad taught me how to drive off roading primarily. So it’s the whole like the whole Las Cruces area, I know like all the off roading all of it. um, me and my dad explored a lot of the base of the Organs and there’s there’s this road that is covered in power lines. And so I call it the power line road. So I’ve been I’ve been all up and down that by the time I was like 13. And so he taught me how to drive off roading, and then once I got my license then me and my friends, cause we got trucks and jeeps and stuff like so then we’d explored the whole area so like I know from here, like most of the way to T or C and Dona Ana, and all of that area like we’ve been through all that. So yeah, I really like off roading especially. So.
I: Do you do any racing?
P: I did when I was younger. But right now, I don’t really have any way I guess I have the motorcycle. I don’t know. I don’t think go fast is really racing. What we do is we would we, there’s this place called the track it’s actually just an empty dirt lot across the street from Centennial, and it’s actually like a loop marked with like tires and stuff. And so like when we were younger, we used to time ourselves and so who’d get the best time within that lap. Right now. It’s not really racing. I was just having fun.
I: That’s cool. That’s awesome. Um, have you ever gotten pulled over?
P: I’ve been pulled over a couple times now. Um, one time, one time was over in Old Mesilla, and then another time was in Texas, and then another-, the most recent time was also in Texas. So yeah, none of them were like, I wasn’t doing anything serious for almost any of them. It was just like small things right? So like, in Old Mesilla. I was driving my mom’s van which is like a mom van but it was like old and kind of falling apart. So it looks sketchy. And so, I had just finished being at the pool with my friend Cormac and the cop pulled me over and I was like, What did I do wrong? And the speed limit, there’s like, I think it’s like thirty-five. And first of all, he walks over to the other window across from me and I roll it down, and he sticks his head in the window and goes, “do you know how fast you were going?” I was like, he pulled me over cause he thought I was doing drugs. That’s what he, that’s what he thought it was a profile stop was what it was. And he goes, “You were doing thirty-seven in a thirty-five” and I was like, are you serious right now? And he goes, proof of insurance and registration. I cou-, I couldn’t find it cause it was my mom’s van. And so I was like, he gave me a citation. It wasn’t even like a full thing. He was just like, “show up to court provide your documents”. And like I did, because I was like, “mom where are they?” And she was like, “Oh, they’re in this thing that you didn’t look in” and i was like, “oh, okay, I’m sorry”. So then I just showed up at court and gave the documents and nothing happened. And then the second time I was in Texas, driving the same van registered in New Mexico, on my way to Winter Jam. And they they pulled me over because I was going like 16 over the speed limit or something like that. So yeah, but they-, but I was going with traffic, which is a stupid thing. And they pulled me over because I had New Mexico license. They targeted me because I wasn’t from the state. So yeah.And the most recent time I was speeding, and he was-, I know speeding. Yeah, quotations, right? Cause he was like, he pulled me over he was like, “you were doing 86 in a 60”. I was like, “no, I wasn’t I was doing a 76 in a 60”. And so he gave me this big old ticket. It was like, really expensive. And then I showed up to court and the judge was like, “yeah, he didn’t show up, so you’re good.” I was like, “cool”. So yeah, it was great.
I: Nice, so bad luck, but a little bit of good luck there at the end.
P: Honestly, I don’t think any of them are bad luck. It was like, uh ehh. It is what it is.
I: Sweet, okay, ummm, traveling, let’s talk about traveling.
P: I love traveling.
I: Where have you traveled to? Tell me tell me a story.
P: So, I’ve been to almost every state with the exception of Alaska. And I guess some of the smaller eastern states. The only eastern states I’ve really been in are Florida, and Boston. Um, but I’ve been in most of the state is not almost all of them. Like a 46, maybe 46 of the states. So yeah, I grew up traveling with my family. And then as I got older, I started traveling more for work stuff and slash parkour stuff. And then yeah, I just I travel a lot. So at least two or three big trips a year so, I’m literally going to be leaving this Thursday to go to Albuquerque for climbing competition.
I: For a what competition?
P: Climbing.
I: Oh nice!
P: Climbing, rock climbing competition. Yeah.
I: Sweet. So tell me about rock climbing then.
P: Its uh, it’s uh, plastic things bolted to a wooden wall that you climb on. It’s really weird.
I: Nice.
P: Yeah.
I: What do those competitions look like?
P: Usually, it’s a giant gym that has like, specialty bouldering routes, and you walk into the route and it says like 500 points. And the points correlate to how difficult it is. And then you just try and rack up as many points as possible. So then, like top six climbs is are what, count for your scoring. So then you just try and climb the highest value climbs possible. Yeah, so that’s fun. So I usually go to the Yankin Yard up in Albuquerque at least once a year. So yeah.
I: How intense are those competitions?
P: Ah, it depends. So if you’re climbing open or citizens like I’m doing, it’s not the biggest deal. It’s like chill, it’s like you, they give you like three hours and you just like hang out and climb and then eat pizza and then climb and drink a beer and then climb, right? It’s like super chilled out. The climbing community is like a super laid back kind of hippie community. So it’s like, fairly chill. But if you qualify for finals, that’s not chill. They turn off all the lights in the building. And they put spotlights on one specific part of the wall, they like within half an hour, tear the whole wall down and rebuild it with harder routes and then they have music that like shakes the building its like boom, boom, boom, boom, and you, you, like everyone’s watching you. And they, you just go one at a time. Usually it’s one male and one female climb at the same time. And then like they get like three tries per route, and then they move on to the next person. And there’s these things called high balls. So at the Yankin Yard competition, they have the only high ball competition in New Mexico. So it’s like, typically a bouldering wall is only like 15 feet tall on the high side, high ball and can be up to like 30. So it’s really really high in the air and they have this giant air mattress that they blow up and so if you fall you land on the air mattress, it’s like super cool. So yeah, it can be chill, but it also cannot be chill.
I: Would you say that you’re good rock climbing?
P: I am mid. I competed. When I was a kid I went to like state regionals. I went to California to compete, I got invited to the California youth team. Um but I didn’t live there so I didn’t accept it. Like I’ve been all over to compete, and I was fairly good when I was a kid. And then I stopped competing there for a little bit when I joined, doing more parkour stuff. uh nowadays I am, I’m mid. There are a lot of people that are way, way better than me.
I: Do you have um a most memorable competition that you went to?
P: A most memorable competition?
I: And that can be good or bad? Just what, which one sticks out the most?
P: I don’t know. I feel like the more memo-, memorable ones have been the ones I’ve been to more recently, where I wasn’t even competing. I was watching the competition, right? Like those high ball competitions. Those are so sick to watch. So, I think those are more memorable than any of the ones I went to when I was a kid. So yeah, aside from that, maybe just the comp where they were like, “Hey, you should be on youth team.”I was like, I don’t live here.
I: Um, so how did you get into parkour?
P: Uh, so I saw Jackie Chan movies, and I was like, I want to do that. Literally, if no, that’s that’s exactly what happened. I saw Jackie Chan movies, I saw YouTube videos. And I was like, I’m gonna try and replicate that I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m gonna try and replicate it. So then I would just go outside and jump off things like my house, and then get in trouble by my parents and continue to do that. And that kept happening until high school. And and uh I met my friend Cormac. And we were literally in science class. And I was like, sitting next to him. I was like, “so you do parkour?” He was like, “yeah”, I was like, “want to go rooftopping”. And he was like, “yeah”. And then we did. So that’s literally, he introduced me to Adrian, which is the branch manager for here in Las Cruces. And then I started taking those classes and then I got introduced everyone else like uh, Joseph and Carl-, well, Carlos and them didn’t take classes. I guess it was just Joseph, Cormac, Gavin, and then I kept taking those classes and going to open gyms and stuff like that until-, have you met Conrad? Yeah, Conrad used to work at ZG, or elevate, as you know it, and he was like, “Yeah, I’m leaving, you can have my job”. And so he gave it to me as, when I was like, 14. And he was like, “Here you go. Have fun”. And so then me and Joseph worked together, and we worked together for I don’t even remember how long before A-, Adrian came back and-, well, I think COVID happened. And then Adrian came back and took over and then now we work for Adrian and we spent a bunch of time taking training and yeah, now it’s no.
I: Nice. Have you gotten injured before?
P: Oh, with what?
I: With parkour. Specifically.
P: With parkour, specifically. You know, surprisingly, not as much as other things. Um, I’ve never broken a bone in general that I am aware of. Um, I would s-, I don’t know. I would say that parkour, I am a fairly cautious jumper, right. um, if you meet some other guys that I jump with their very recklessly they just throw their bodies at things. I typically have more of a fear factor when I’m doing parkour. So it keeps me safe a lot of the time. And I’m also very methodical. So I will not do something if I don’t think I can do it. You know what I mean? So I think compared to a lot of other athletes, I have a very low injury rate, especially compared to Joseph, he has paper ankles.
I: Alright, so you said you don’t get injured much with parkour. But what about other things the rock climbing?
P: Yeah, so with rock climbing, I have like, like, one of the more recent ones is my wrist right here. There’s a tendon triangle here that I actually, I don’t know, for sure, because I haven’t been diagnosed. I haven’t gotten to the doctor for it. But I’m fairly sure I ripped one of those tendons, because this joint right here pops up out of place. And it’s very, very painful. Like even if I’m just riding on the bike. Um, so that exists. I’m trying to think of anything else. That’s major. You know, I’ve been in some crashes and vehicles. I’ve caught my pants on fire when I was dirt biking. I, I think that’s kind of it. Just in general I don’t really get injured like that much. You know what I mean? So. Um no major injuries, you know, I’ve gotten injuries doing fighting, like martial arts and stuff like that. Um but that kind of comes with the territory. So it’s like kind of under-, more understandable. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I: Tell me about the, the pants on fire. How did that happen?
P: Well, I was I was riding a friend’s dirt bike and the way the m-, exhaust goes is it comes off the engine turns and goes up right by your leg. I don’t know who designed that the peg is literally right below the, if this is the exhaust the pegs right below it. So I was wearing the wrong kind of pants, and they caught on fire because I was going too hard. And the ga-, I had the gas open a lot and it just woosh so yeah. But it wasn’t like, I didn’t like get burned seriously or anything. It was just my pants. So yeah.
I: So what did you do who, who put out the fire?
P: I was like “Boomer! Boomer! Take the bike, take the bike!” and I was like jumping off the bike and I handed the bike to him and I literally like, dropped on my butt and tried to roll but it didn’t go out. So then I just started grabbing dirt and throwing it on top of my pants. And I got it to go out. So yeah.
I: Sweet. All right, actually going back to the rock climbing, how did you get into rock climbing?
P: Um so I actually have been doing rock climbing longer than I’ve been doing parkour. I’ve climbed for eleven years now. So half of my life. uhh and my dad is the one who got me into it. So he was like, “We’re gonna go to Cave Climbing”. And so we would drive over to El Paso and we’d go climb over at Cave, and then we would go to like Albuquerque and compete. And then we’d go to California to compete if I did well at Albuquerque and then California, Utah, that kind of stuff. Um so it was just like something we did as a family. Like I’ve climbed my sister climbs my dad used to climb. Um and this was something we did.
I: Nice. So tell me a little bit more about your family.
P: Like what do you want to know?
I: What’s your relationship with your siblings?
P: Uh, I don’t really have one much because my sister’s like sixteen, seventeen right now. And so we didn’t, we don’t interact very much like at all I’ve moved out since I was eighteen. And so like the second I turned eighteen I was gone. And so like I don’t get get along with my parents super super well. So it was like, “I’m just gonna go live on my own”. So yeah, I don’t have much of a relationship with them.
I: So other than a sister, you have more siblings or?
P: No. That’s it.
I: Just your sister?
P: Yeah.
I: Nice. What about extended family? Cousins?
P: Oh, yeah. Lots of extended family. My mom’s from like, the Bible Belt area. And my dad is from kind of this area. So I have like a lot of cousins, um a lot of cousins in the Bible Belt, a lot of cousins in Arizona like a lot of cousins, like up in Idaho area. So yeah, lots of family.
I: Are you close to any of them.
P: No, could not tell you almost any of their names. Maybe three of them? That used to live in Arizona, but now they’re all gone. I don’t even know where they live. And they all have like kids and stuff. So it’s weird.
I: Nice. Interesting. All right. So do you see yourself staying in this area?
P: Yeah. I own businesses here. So I have to stay.
I: Oh nice.
P: Yeah, kind of a career choice thing. Maybe, maybe going to like nearby states to open more businesses but not uh, anytime soon. Maybe in the next decade or so.
I: Sweet alright, we’re gonna sort of change directions a little bit. Music.
P: Music.
I: Yeah. Tell me about your tastes in music.
P: Oh, my tastes in music. Okay, so I like rap. I like rock. I like um that it. that’s it. Those are- tho, I really like a couple of genres and that’s what I stick to. I mainly just do that. I really like rap. Me and Joseph have very similar rap tastes. And then I like grunge rock. So yeah.
I: Sweet. Have you ever been to concerts?
P: I’ve been to a couple concerts. They’re not really my thing. I don’t like spending a bunch of money on it. You know what I mean? I’ve been to Three Days Grace concert. I’ve been to Skillet concerts I’ve been to I believe Lecrae was Three Days Grace concert. Umm that’s really it. Honestly, I haven’t been to a ton of them. Oh, there’s one more. Iliad, I think is their name. But yeah, it’s not like anything crazy. I don’t like spending money on stupid expensive tickets. I’m not a Swifty so.
I: Goodness, so tell me about the best concert that you went to out of out of-
P: Probably the Skillet concert. It was stupid loud. Like stupid, loud. And both Skillet and Three Days Grace had pyrotechnics going. So it was like super, super cool. Um, but I mean, it was, it was okay. I think the only other person that I’d rather go or the only other couple of people I’d rather go see in concert would be like NF or Eminem. Aside from that, I don’t really have a want to go to concerts. So yeah.
I: What about um music uh, do you play any instruments?
P: Yeah, I’ve played a lot of instruments. I’ve played like, piano guitar, drums, violin. I’ve played a lot of different but that doesn’t mean I’m particularly Gleek good at any one. Right? I’m mid at all of them. If anything, the ones I play the best are probably guitar because I still do that. All the others I’ve kind of dropped off. Um, oh, and I played like bass and all the different guitar variations like twelve strings six string uh, Yeah. Um but yeah, I definitely just mainly play guitar. So.
I: And what got you into that got you into that? What got you into trying to play music?
P:Uh unfortunately religion. Yeah I used to- my parents are very, very religious. So I used to go to church and the best way to entertain myself because I hated being there was being on the worship team. So I’ve played drums, I played bass, I’ve played guitar off a worship team. And that’s where I learned I learned from the pastor. And then when I stopped going to church, I was like, I’m going to play what I actually want to play now. And so like 90% of worship songs, I can actually play those. Um unfortunately. So now I’m trying to like branch out and learn something that’s not just the same six chord pattern over and over again. So yeah.
I: Alright, okay, changing focus a little bit. Food. What’s your favorite fo-
P: Sushi.
I: Sushi?
P: Sushi.
I: Alright. Hands down. Just sushi.
P: Yes, Sushi it’s the best. Asian food in general is the best. Um Islander barbecue the best. Um let’s see here what else, that’s that’s honestly my favorite kind of food. I’m not a fan of Mexican food. I know. I live in New Mexico. Oh, no. I don’t like chili. I don’t like tamales really, like at all. The only tamales I like are my girlfriend’s mom’s tamales and they have to be made a very specific way or I won’t eat it. I think it comes down to a lot of texture, right? Because a lot of Asian foods have a much different texture than like Mexican food. You know what I mean? So like Mexican food is very corny. very grainy. Islander Asian that’s It’s not like that. It’s very smooth. You know what I mean? Lots of fish and stuff like that. So yeah, I prefer like noodles and fish and sushi over almost any kind of Mexican food. So yeah.
I: Sweet. It’s funny because I, I don’t like tamales, either or Chile, and I always get the dirtiest look from people.
P: Right? They’re all like, red or green?
I: Neither!
P: I would rather have raw fish.
I: Literally, raw fish. Um, okay, do you remember the first time you tried sushi?
P: Yeah, yeah, I remember the first time I tried sushi tried octopus tried the I remember the first time I had barbecue and it was all in Guam. And it was like super fire. And then I came here and I was like, man, all of this is mid here. Like this is not great. But whatever.
I: o tell me about it. Tell me about when you first tried these foods.
P: It was all the same restaurant. It was literally the same restaurant. My dad got all this stuffm and he was like, “try this. Try this. Try this. Try this.” And so I tried all the things and I was like, “This is amazing”. and I kept eating it. It’s super simple. And then when I came here, I was like, “Why do tortillas tastes like that? I don’t like it. Why? Why? Why can I feel the individual grains of tortilla? It shouldn’t be like that. It should be like, smoother.”
I: All right. Pet peeves. Do you have any pet peeves?
P: Oh, i have a lot of pet peeves.
I:Tell me about them.
P: I hate it when people mess with their nails. Like a lot. Like I’ll smack my girlfriend. I’ll be like, “no”. It bothers me so much. Um, other pet peeves. Um hmmmm, people not using their blinkers. People cutting me off in traffic. Um, let’s see-, thats- man that’s a lot of it. College, uh. College is a pet peeve of mine. I don’t know, maybe unnecessarily spending money on stupid things. Maybe Maybe I don’t like that. I get irritated at my girlfriend for that. Which like is okay in moderation. You know what I mean? But I don’t know, I just don’t like to I don’t like to spend money on like clothing. Like that’s such a stupid thing to spend money on, right? But I’ll drop several grand on my cars like hands down, right. Right? I’ll drop a bunch of money on my cars on my bike. Whatever. I literally bought my bike on a whim. Like, in one day, I saw that they were having a sale and I bought it the same day. Like, I would rather do that than spend $300 on clothes. Like that’s stupid. I hate that so much. It’s just dumb. Like most of my shirts are from H&M-, or literally half my wardrobe is hand down-, hand-me-downs from Joseph.
I: Nice! Nice.
P: It’s like, free. Let’s go.
I: Nice. Alright? So tell me about your education.
P: Oh, the good part. No, I don’t have very good education. I’m not an educated person. So uh, I did not like school at all. I almost dropped out of high school. I had awful grades all through high school. I almost failed High School. If it wasn’t for COVID, I probably would have. Uhmmm I skipped a lot. I gotta do a lot of fights. I just didn’t care about school all the way, starting in even middle school, I was hopping the fence to not have to be there for next period. Right. Especially since I was around the time I was getting into parkour. So it was like, I could just climb on the roof and walk away. You know what I mean? So I did, I just, if I want to do a thing, I just do the thing. So it’s like, man, I don’t want to be here. So I’m just not going to be here. And so I would just bribe the security guard and leave. Um yeah, I did that a lot in high school. I had Fs and Ds, and especially senior year, year, I was there maybe 5% of the time and my parents never found out about it. Cause then COVID came, and it was like, oh, we got a um we got to not be at school anymore. I was like, cool and then everyone passed, essentially, because COVID was there. And I had a drive through graduation. I fell asleep because I did not care. I was in my car and I fell asleep for like two and a half hours because I just didn’t care. I didn’t want to be there. I almost didn’t go right. Didn’t go to Prom. I don’t care. I don’t give a shit. It’s stupid, right? Um college. I went to college for a year and I hated almost every second of it. I went to the same college that we’re at right now. Yay. And I racked up like an almost $20,000 school debt from one year of college. And I was like, This is stupid. The career I’m going for isn’t even going to pay me that much in a year. Why would I do this? This is stupid. You know what I mean? So I came to schoo-, college for media and journalism and found out very quickly that I didn’t like it um. The only class I liked was photography, because I made good friends. Shout out Aaron I know I don’t talk to you. But, shout out. Side from that I just I hated every class. Why do you need to take a jewelry class? A required jewelry class? That’s stupid. Why the fuck am I paying you guys $16,000 to go fuckn jewelry class where the teacher was a dick to I think-, I don’t even think she works here. I think she got fired, because she was such a bad teacher. And so I hated that I didn’t even show up half the time or I just turned turn on the video and i would not turn on my camera and play Minecraft in the background. My girlfriend has pictures of me with my laptop, and my hands would be here and I had a screen behind it and played Minecraft on the screen. Right? Um photography class, I would like, I would, my, the way, my teacher was kind of cool. He was kind of a cool guy. He would have like photo competitions. And then he would give like first, second and third place. And it was like a graded assignment. I would get first almost every single time me and Aaron would switch places on who would get first and second. And I was taking the best photos of the class. And then I would take a test and I, he would fail me for the whole class. And it was like “why do I need to know what’s on the test? If I’m a better picture, taker than you are”? like hmm, interesting. So at the time I was also, I would do like photo shoots for people and I was like, “why am I paying people to teach me how to take photos? When, I could just make money, taking photos”. And around this time is when I started working at cave climbing as a front desk person. So I would literally like skip classes to go drive to El Paso to be on time for my shift. Right? Umm so for like a whole year, I just did that drive every single day. So yeah, that’s my that’s my experience with school. I’m a bad student. My bad. Still paying off my student loans for no reason. Umm hung up on the federal government when they called me to take their loans back and I was like, “Oh, I can’t afford that.” So yeah.
I: Do you still um do photography?
P: Yeah, I still do photography. Not so much recently because I’ve been very very busy with moving and the business and all that but when Joseph can get me out of the house I will go with him to take photos.
I: Nice.
P: So.
I: That’s good.
P: Yeah.
I: You got something good out of it, right?
P: Yeah.
I: Alright umm tell your girlfriend.
P: Um my girlfriend’s name is Itzel. We’ve been together for-, I think a little bit over five years now. Um we live together in El Paso Texas, and she works as Head Manager of Allen Theaters.
I: Oh, nice!
P: Yes!
I: I love the movies.
P: Yes so do I. We’re, we’re big movie people. Like we watch all the good movies that come out so it’s a very fitting job for her especially cause she likes to yell at people. So her being in charge is like perfect.
I: Sweet. Where did you guys meet?
P: High school. Literally. And we lived in the same neighborhood together. So like I knew her sister before I knew her because of a mutual friend. Um, her sister did volley-, volleyball, she did volleyball so Coach Lupold, the coach of Las Cruces High Volleyball team uh, I knew his son so they we would hang out and then once we got in high school, we realized we lived in the same neighborhood and yeah, continue.
I: Nice. Um, friendships, tell me about other friendships that you have. Um.
P: I don’t have friends.
I: Okay, well we can skip that question then.
P: No, no no no. I’m kidding. Um. I don’t have like a lot of friends I just have a couple of really really close friends. Right. So. Itzel will be like, “Hey, do you remember so and so from high school?” it’s like, no I don’t. If I don’t actively talk to them, they don’t exist. Like, if I don’t text them on a semi-regular basis they never existed. I don’t even remember their name I don’t remember what they looked like. I can’t tell you almost anyone from high school if I don’t talk to them. Right, so I have really really close friends, Cormac, Aidan, Joseph, Widow, um they’re really close friends. Conrad, I’ve known him for a really really long time. Um, so yeah. I have close friends, I don’t have a lot of friends though.
I: Okay. Alright. Um last questions because we’re at time. Um, tell me about your pets, you mentioned you have cats.
P: I have two cats, one is named Mochi one is names Yuki. Their little shits, their spoiled. Um, Mochi is the most friendly energetic cat you’re ever gonna meet. Orange cat energy. Um every time you’re in the house, he will come ove-, I literally got scratched by him today. He scratched right on my tattoo. I was like “goddammit mm fucker”. Um, so he’s the most friendly cat ever, he’ll come over and like lay on your lap and climb up on you and like nuzzle you, even if you’re a new person. He loves beards. He will groom beards. Like every time Cormac comes over, he’ll sit there and like groom on Cormac’s beard. He’s very friendly. Yuki hates existence. Uh, I think she would be happier is she was dead. Literally. Um, she doesn’t want to be around people. She doesn’t want to be out and about. She wants to be under the bed or being fed. She likes being fed. She’s very, she will let you know if she has not had her food for the day. She growls at you when you pick her up, but she will never bite you. She grrrrrrrr, like that’s the kind of noises she makes but then she just sits there. She doesn’t try and move she doesn’t like, try and bite you, she’s just like, “Ok. I’m just being held now. I’m angry but I’m being held now.” Airplane ears. Right. So, completely opposite personalities.
I: Yes. When did you get them?, how did you get them?
P: They’re only a little bit over a year old. So, we’ve only had them for like a year and a half -ish, maybe, if even that. So they’re still babies. Yeah.
I: So, did you adopt them from a shelter?
P: We found them in a barn.
I: Nice!
P: Yeah. Itzel’s mom’s friend has like a farm, and I guess, her ki-, one of her cats has kittens and we were like, “we’ll go look. We’re not gonna adopt one. We’ll go look”. And then we went home with two cats.
I: That’s usually how that goes.
P: Yeah.
I: Alright well that’s all the questions I have unless you have something you want to add?
P: No, not really.
I: Alright, cool.
[38:39]
New Mexico Border Spanish Corpus 