Who I am...in a nutshell.

My past is a big blur to me. Some years have completely disappeared from my memory. Others I have just enough memories to paint a general picture. Why this is happening all of a sudden? I have no idea why. What I can tell you based on pictures and the remaining memories is just enough for this assignment. Well, let us start off with the basics. I was born in Ventura, California in the year 1991. I am the eldest of two children. I was born from the second oldest sibling out of 12 and the fourth youngest sibling out of 8. If you are scratching your head I just described my parents. Growing up I mostly enjoyed being alone doing whatever my mind would think of. Whether I would be playing with toy soldiers, reading a picture book, or taking apart toy cars, I enjoyed my time alone. Yes taking apart cars not destroying or demolishing like other little munchkins. Of course I had many friends in school, for I was a very energetic child as well.  Any person will call that bi-polar, but if one is bi-polar he or she is not aware that he or she has “two sides/personalities”. No I knew when to be energetic and when to be calm, even at the tender age of seven. And like every kid with energy running amok, I was an occasional bully. I still have that side, but as a grownup I see myself as a person who likes to laugh and point occasionally. I also had many pets growing up. Fishes, wild birds, a lizard, turtles, stray cats and tens of pet rocks. My favorite was the turtle because my favorite color is green and the turtle was green and tiny. When my sister was born, well seven years after, I played more and more with her than alone. That is when I added the ‘social badge’ to my personal checklist. The times I did not feel like being alone, with friends, or with my sister I would be in the kitchen with my mom. Sometimes I mixed random stuff together to see what it tasted like, only to throw it away 5 seconds later, hence me being a chef in the future.

Speaking about being a chef, let us come from to past and into the present shall we? Currently, I am studying to get my AS in Culinary Arts. I began my path towards becoming a chef technically as a little kid, but scholarly speaking, Junior year in high school. I did not always want to be a chef, I wanted to be a painter when I was 10, a marine biologist when I was 15 and a chef at 17. My first job was as a grill cook at Oxnard College Cafeteria. I was told by many students and staff that I was the best grill cook in a long time, but because of budget cuts the college let me go and hired a voluntary. Only 2 weeks after that job I was hired as a dishwasher and a busser at Café Amri, and I am rising  through the ranks already.

What the future holds is simple. Chef, restaurateur, celebrity chef, Iron Chef, Cookbook author, and eventually a professor at a culinary institution. Pretty far fetched, but I know I will achieve all throughout my lifetime. It all may seem shallow as well to other people, but how can I not be all of those things if that is what I love and wish? Of course, I would also like to be a blogger, YouTuber, and an author on the side.