Back To School - Episode: 111

This could give me for our podcast What Up I'm Schizo? That is John Magic And we are back back to school season, and this is the time of the year where you start seeing on Instagram the parents posting whatever grade their kids are at, and the pictures usually them either holding a sign or they're out the front door. First day of first grade, second grade, third grade, whatever it is. We're in back to school season. Yeah, so I think with this, with this time of the year, we sort

of wanted to talk about our schooling experience, if you will. Yeah, I mean, even if we remember you were asking me if I had any like back to school memories, I don't know if it was ever a thing for me. The only thing I do remember about back to school is you had you had to have like one or two fits ready. Yeah. But even if I go back before that elementary school, I mean, were you like that in elementary school where you were you got your clothes ready? I

don't mean, I don't think I started carrying until maybe high school. I remember in middle school we had to wear a uniform, which sucks. That was two years. Seventh and eighth grade at the school that I was going to, we had to wear a uniform, which was a uniform like the school colors. We were like green, so we'd wear like a green polo, like a green polo and some khaki pants or something. It was bad. I hated that time of the year. And they were like no logos

on your shirts. Like it was so dumb. Like the whole uniform thing was dumb. It wasn't even a private school or anything. You had to buy your own or to buy our own. They just told you get this color. Yeah, like this like these type of clothing, like you know, collared shirts, slacks, and these colors you can wear. And that was like the guideline. And then we had to go and buy uniform and we wear them every day. And then every day they would like, uh

you know when they would do with the announcements. Yeah, and then teachers would have everybody in class stand up and she would like or hear she would check everybody and make sure they were in uniform, and if there was like a violation, you would be sent to the office and they'd give you fucking clothes to wear. Wait. I hate at that time in my life if people had to buy their own clothes. Yeah, or quote unquote uniforms was

it was everyone wearing a different shade of green. It was never uniform where like, oh, I mean they told you there was shade of green they wanted. But yeah, obviously there was gonna be some off colors depending on the brand that you bought. But yeah, that's what I remember. Elementary school, of course you wear whatever. High school, you know, there's like little things about dress code, like it was no sports, no team logos was like the biggest thing. Couldn't wear hats stuff like that, But

yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't until high school when I would put out that, like the best fit that I got over the summer would be out and ready to go the night before starting school. Junior high for me, seventh, seventh, eighth, ninth was junior high for me, and I remember caring about what I was wearing. But with that being said, at that time, you didn't you didn't have a level of like what was cool or not because where I got all my shoes during that time was pay less

shoes. Damn during middle school too, well, junior high was we never during my era, we didn't have a thing called middle school. Eighth ninth this is when ninth you were still in junior high. You didn't go to the high school yet. But pay Less Shoes was the spot pro wings to me. I thought that was the shoe like. I didn't know about Nike, Reebok, none of that stuff. Maybe, and not until ninth grade, but seventh and eighth it was strictly swapped me clothes. Whatever you would

buy at Miller's Outpost. That was that later turned Onto turned to Anchor Blue, but it was called Miller's Outpost. Just whatever you're has got you in seventh eighth grade because you just didn't I didn't have my style yet. But yeah, that is a memory, A core memory I have is Payless Shoes was my shopping spot because that's where your parents took you. Yeah, I didn't. I don't think I had my style at that time either. I know what I liked, but I didn't really have a style, and obviously

I couldn't wear it because we were in uniform anyway. So I think that transition period was kind of crazy. And I always talk about this, that that middle school or that junior high, it's such a crucial point in your life. It's just I don't know, I just feel like that was when I was most insecure. That was when like you know, puberty's kicking in. You don't really know your identity yet during that time that was I didn't really like those years of my school years. I would probably have to say

middle school is the time that I didn't really like at all. I'll pick you back on that because eighth grade is when I remember start getting bullied. Yeah, I mean it's that it's growing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and then you start thinking, oh wait, these are not cool. I thought these were cool, but you start getting bullied and then that so ninth grade that's when you were like you want all the name brand shit,

right, I'm telling Mom's like, hey I need this. Luckily, the swap meat carried the Nikes, and you're like, yeah, anything with a swosh on it, Like was it a real swoosh? Yeah, who knows, but hey, it had a swoosh on it, and you got it the swap meat. From what I remember, it was just like it was real but maybe like a cheaper shoe. Yeah, but again, now you're just buying the name brand. You still. To me, ninth grade, I didn't really have a style yet, Okay. I was just copying whatever

you saw, like the cool kids wearing or whatever. You like what you saw, Yeah, whatever your friends were wearing, Like, yeah, I'll get those ray on silk shirts too. That was big during my years, the starter jackets with the team. I remember having a Philadelphia Eagles one. But yeah, I didn't start the putting the fit together there. You know the classic image of putting it on your bid. Yeah, yeah, the top, the shorts, whatever you're gonna wear, the shoes, and then

you just look stepped back a couple of feet, looked at it. That's the one. That's the one. And then But I don't know about you. I think I don't if I remember correctly, I would only have like two new fits and then you would have to recycle like all your older stuff. Yeah. I didn't get that much either, because especially during that time going into high school, I started liking, you know, the brand stuff, so I got a little bit more expensive. So, you know,

the budget wasn't as as much. I couldn't get so much for the budget. So yeah, i'd get just like a few fits and then maybe accumulate during the year, maybe during Christmas. I would ask for some more clothes. During that time, but yeah, man, that that was the time that you start caring about your looks, your fit, your shoes. I know, I was really big on ky Swiss during that era. The classics. Yeah, that was also during an era which sucked because we weren't during

it, weren't at school, but I was. My era of high school was during the time of like throwback jerseys being big, and the matching cap and the matching shirt and the logos all over the cap and the logos on the jeans and the Air Force ones like that was my era, and you couldn't wear a lot of that ship. I was just about to say, was that allowed? No, that was not allowed. So it sucked that

I was not able. But like out of school or even at school dances where they didn't really care what we wore, I would bust out, you know, the throwback jersey or whatever. But you just brought back school dances. Yeah. Fun fact. I never went to school dance until my first one was probably junior prom. Okay, but you went to prom. I went to prom. But the dances, there was dances in junior high. Yeah, there was dances, you know, in tenth grade and just like

little ones. That's the classic ones at the gym. Yeah, yeah, like we I remember when going to Bullard, we used to have like a maybe a dance maybe that first few weeks. It was kind of like a welcome dance to kind of like hey, you know, school started back up. That was like the the the Fall dance, I guess. And then there was another dance we would call like the Army dance, which was cool because everyone were a camo yes, and those type of dances, like the

regular ones. I didn't go to any of those, so I went to all those, but the ones were it was like a couple like sadis or formal. I never went to those because of course my anxiety never wanted me to, never allowed me to ask somebody to go. But the other dances were fun. I would go, of course. They would just like kind

of stand on the sidelines, not really doing much with friends. Yeah, I want my friends, and we would kind of like dance among ourselves, meaning like we because we were into like dancing, like you know, pop locking all that type of stuff, so we would kind of do that and maybe like dance with you know, not like a battle dance, but you kind of dancing within a circle. With all your friends. But yeah, I never I never even did prom my senior year or anything. You didn't

know I didn't. I didn't go to no formal. I didn't go to no prom just because I didn't ask nobody. Yeah, during those times is when my fear of, like I can't talk to girls. Yeah, so you still ask somebody no, never, and how'd you go to form? The well? That was eleventh grade? I was, you know, I think you know, I was on the football team, and you know, I think that one was a little easier, a little yeah, you know. And eleven the grade, that's when you know, the less fear of

like going up to girls for sure. Okay, but just I'm just mostly thinking remembering junior high school, those dances you're talking about, the sadies the well, why didn't you go to the fear of like like I don't have a date. I never went with friends, Like I never had the group of friends that would say, hey, this is the plan, all of us at the dance. Okay, see that's how we would roll. I never had those kind of friends. Everybody squeezing in the car and then we

rolled up to the dance. But yeah, I didn't do any of the couple dances because my anxiety didn't allow me to ask a girl during that time you were so I was junior high, yours will. It was called middle school already seventh and eighth grade. Yeah, it was a school for just those two grades. Yeah, what for example? I mean, I remember being in band and junior high. Did you do anything in middle school? So in middle school I actually played I played basketball, and oh yeah that

was it because they didn't have like football or soccer during that time. I was playing soccer competitive league outside of school. But I was playing basketball only in middle school and I didn't really do much with that. I'm not gonna go into this story because I know there's a podcast episode with this full story. But in junior high when I was in when I joined band. I've never played drums before, never in my life. But where you start is

there's three levels, beginning, intermediate, and marching band. Marching band was like the top level. That's, you know, the highest that you want to be at, that's the goal. But in junior high, I just had to go to I had to go to beginning band because it's my first time ever playing drums. And that movie drum line with Nick Cannon is basically my junior high story really is because you learn how to read notes. But it's so simple because you're in the beginning band and I understood it, like

I understood it quickly. You just got you just understood music. Yeah. And then and then they would, you know, play something and I would copy it, like I could easily play it on the drums easily. So from beginning band, they moved me straight to marching band and I was in junior high. That was like my big thing. I was a drummer in marching band. Not knowing the notes were way more difficult. So I would just ask my bandmates, just tell me how this goes, yeah, and

I'll just copy it, just like the movie. So you didn't know how to read music like how Nick can do it? Great? Yeah, I knew, I understood it. I just when you're in marching band. It was Yeah, it was complicated stuff, but that, yeah, that was like a highlight from my junior high. Now during that time, you don't perform at games, do you right? Oh no, we we did. We did parade that did. We got to do Disneyland that I've actually been

to Disneyland where I've seen like students come in to perform. We got to do that. And but ninth grade is when I started my athletic side. Okay, ninth grade we had a football junior high football team. Okay, so a fun fact of my ninth grade football team. We went ah and nine. We didn't win one game. We did not win one game. So it was just a team of ninth graders, all ninth graders. Okay, so no eighth graders to be on the team. No, only ninth

graders. You play other ninth graders for other junior high ninth graders yet, so yeah, we it was this. Like I said, ninth grade was my first time being on an actual football team, organized football team, and I didn't know what I was doing. But I was a starter. Yeah, I was like fast enough, big enough, strong enough, but we just did not win a game. Fast forward to high school. I ended up we ended up winning like the championship where we went underfeed and all that

stuff. But so when you got into high school, you played all three years, all three years, and it kind of goes into the whole back to school thing. When you're playing football in high school, that's like right away, right right when you start, when you go back to school, it's football season. Yeah, and don't you even practice a little bit before even school starts. So I think going back to school for the first day in high school was always a highlight because you always got to wear your athletic

gear. Did you do that thing where you know, uh, you're playing like a home game and then a girl would wear like you're away jersey that Yeah, one of the cheerleaders was wearing yeah, my my jackets or whatever. But but the weird thing is I was like a big guy, so it was like super big on her because she was like super small. Warm though, this give me school in the stadium. Yeah, we we did that. But back to school in high school was always fun because people looked

up to the football players the class always it's always the biggest sport. And it's like you said, as soon as you get on campus, it's like already football season. Friday nights is always a big thing. When I got into high school, then I was able to play soccer. I had played soccer my entire life competitively, but then when I got into high school, I was able to play for my high school team. That was a lot of fun playing high school soccer. That's the only thing I did Outside of

that. I was in one club my senior year. It was called Hip Hop Nation, which was cool. It was basically like a lot of dancers. One of our homies was like a turntable list too, And towards the end of the school year on my senior year, we actually like performed in front of the Kroad my boys to hob was scratching on the turntables and my boy Greg and my boy Adam, we were all like dancing and we put on a little dance routine. It was It was fun. That was kind

of like the only thing that I did. And when I did that, I had looked back and wish that I had did more in high school, like joining other clubs or just being part of things. If I could redo it, I would probably tell myself to do more. But that goes back to the whole anxiety thing, right. I didn't really. I was just too nervous to sign up for stuff for being extra curricular activities. Yeah, were you in any clubs or anything like that? My cousins and I started

the Asia, the very first Asian club in our high school. Okay, there was never because you know, there was the Black Student Union BSU. Yeah, there was Metcha. I don't know what the Mexican Club was called for. You guys had one, but m E C h A. Okay, uh, I forget what it stood for Chicano and was was it the Chicano No? How did think? I don't know, I don't, Yeah, but there's called Metcha, and I think that was it. Those were the two big like nationality clubs. And my cousins and I were like,

let's start an Asian club and we started one. We found our we found the one Asian teacher to be our yeah, our supervisors, supervisor of some sort. But it was fun, like we did not know what we were doing, but we just started it. We held meetings, we did talent shows, We were part of you know, things that were that were happening in schools. Fundraisers. I remember we were. We were selling like Asian

food. We I remember putting out like a table and every kid bought their moms like dish and we would have like you know, would sell it as the lunch. And that was like our fundraiser. And if I'm not mistaken, I think that club uh is still existing to this day. It's called ASU Asian Students School. Yeah, I think it is, And we were the start. We started that like a plaque over there something like that. How I wanted to get to this. How was lunch? What was lunch

time in school for you? So in high school it was just always chilling, hanging out with with our friends. We had like a certain area on the quad where we all hung out, right, Like everybody's had that area and everyone just went there. So that was my vibe in high school. And we would just sit there and joke and clown on each other the entire time. That's all we did. Like I just remember every lunch, were just laughing the entire time. And I know senior year we were able to

go off campus, not all years, but only senior year. And even then we didn't really go off that much because about time you you know, get off campus order your food, it was like already time to come back to class. And to me, I wanted to hang out with friends and

chill. I didn't give a fuck about going off campus to eat. Some people just thought it was like the biggest thing, like, oh my god, we can leave school and go eat somewhere, And to me, it was never that big a deal, Like, Okay, I could do that when I get off of school. It wasn't a big deal. But I don't know, some people just like needed to get off campus right away, and I just thought that was little dramatic for some reason, like relax what

I'm saying. So we would just hang out on campus. Every once in a while we would go, but for the most part, we would just clown each other, go to the snack bar, grab some chips in a drink. That's all you needed, and uh, what about you? Well, I'm that one guy that my senior year, that's when I started driving. I had a car my senior year, and so did my other friends. And we would just mob like four people in a car. Whoever as a car, you take thirty minutes and you just we went to there.

There was two spots. It was the Carls Junior across the street or the Baker's Bakers is this Ie Burger joint, But those are the two spots that we would drive to and it would be a line of the homies cars just like six cars lined up really just like going out the parking lot and driving. Yeah, That's another thing. There's only like a select number of places that are close to the school, right, so when everybody goes there, it's so like the lines are held along and you're just like looking like,

oh, it's almost time to already get back. We made it happen, and we made it a fun thing. But you're right, you were rushed, like everyone get back in their cars. Yeah yeah, but even before that, were you bringing your lunch? Nah, you're buying it over there. I mean, I just just like how I am today, I just don't really I'm not a big lunch eater, so I would just grab a snack. So we had like we had like a snack bar area, which was cool. They would sell like uh was it me? And it's like

pizza's little mini pizzas, or they would have subway or chips. And then of course like we had, you know, so of machines everywhere. So that's the type of stuff that I needed. I just always needed something to keep me going. I was never like I need to just go order a meal and have like a big gass lunch like everybody was so dramatic about. But yeah, elementary school, I was somebody that always brought their lunch, so I never liked what they called like the hot lunch. I was always

a kid that brought my lunch to school in elementary school. I remember the that hot lunch thing where you uh tray and then you went down the line, very prison style, right it was. But in the fucking chocolate milk. That's so weird to me? Was that weird because you're eating lunched with chocolate milk? Like, give me a bottle of water or something. I was all right with the chocolate. I mean, I'm a fan of chocolate milk, but just looking back on it, that's so weird to give someone

here's your lunch in milk. Like what, Let me ask you this. Did you did your school ever have where they looked for volunteers to serve? Yeah, that was always fun. You had to wear the hair and the hair and give your friends a little extra. Yeah. I did that a lot because you got free food after that, and I think you got to get out of class a little, yeah, to prepare and then maybe go late to class a little bit. Man. That's crazy. How that's funny.

That's a memory because, like you know, with the interest of owning a restaurant. Yeah, dam who would have thought? Yeah, man, I do remember volunteering a lot for that. Yeah, so that was my elementary school, the hot lunch thing junior high. I remember in the beginning, I would pack a lunch and it would be that classic your whatever the leftovers your mom made from either Asian food and the cool whip man. But

yeah, I remember again like getting bullied. So then you would just be like, mom, I need like five bucks a week or foreting bully for what you ate. Yes, yeah that was that's that's so sad to me. Man. I never really got I guess I got. I guess if you're getting made fun of your getting bullied. But when I was going to elementary school, and I would take my own lunch from a very young age because my mom's just how she raised us. I was always into spicy food

at a very young age. So I would pack like tabasco sauce or a hollow pino like stuff like that, or salsa in my lunch, and people would make fun of me for that, like made me feel insecure about bringing like spicy food. So I feel you on that. And then I wasn't big on lunch anyway. So once you got into middle school or junior high, for you guys, it wasn't you didn't have to go to lunch. You know how elementary school everyone lines up to go to lunch. It was

an option in middle school for us. And so when I found that out, I was like, thank god, Like I hated eating lunch, everyone rushed to lunch line. I'm like, now I'm chilling. I got my drink and bag of chips, and I'm good to go. So I did appreciate how you weren't forced to eat lunch anymore. I remember the when I would bring the Asian food, and I remember they would do the whole classic

ching chong chin like that. Yeah yeah, man. So it's crazy how back then when you're a kid, because you know now like you don't give a fuck, yeah a fuck what anybody said, but you are back then it sucks. Yeah, you care about what everybody said, care about what everyone thinks. So that's when I'm like, mom might need to buy my lunch. So junior high, you I would get in line, and this one was more of a cafeteria stop, meaning more of like a not a

restaurant, but you would pick certain things okay. It wasn't. So you would go to the register, got you. They would say, okay, all this adds up to five bucks. Okay, So it wasn't like a school lunch where they're like, oh, these are the sides and sandwich. You pick the drink. That's a better vibe. Yeah. Yeah, so I remember doing that, and I remember one year, uh they had French

fries, and I remember that was the biggest thing. They got French fries to choose from, so you could pick French fries and put it on. To this day, I think the middle school French fries had to be some of the best French fries ever had. Like they people would get so crazy and back to that thing where some people would work, you know, work the work the lunch line. I remember people being like, hey, I'm working the lunch time. If y'all need extra fries, I got you.

And then they would have the sauce, which is everyone always it's like secret sauce, but it's always what thousand Island dressing or whatever. Any people would eat that with their fries. Yeah, the fries middle school were hanging. A side note, my mom was actually a lunch lady at the school that I went to, So there was times where we had like an early dismissal day. I forgot what they called those days where it's like early dismissal I

don't know, half day or whatever. But my mom would still have to be at work, so I would go to the lunch room until she was done, and I would eat someone like the leftover food that they had from that day. So that was like always cool, and I got to be friends with some of the lunch ladies during that time. But yeah, man, I mean, did you have a certain food that you can remember?

A lunch food that just slapped for some reason? The fries, I remember, that's a core memory, but there is I do have another core memory. In high school, you would just get the French bread pizza, the oval one, So that's what they would serve as the pizza. And one year they made an announcement I forget what, I'll just say it's probably not Shaky's, whether they're like Shaki's the new sponsor of the pizza, and we started getting the mini boxes. Yeah, it was a brand one, and

I remember everyone going crazy for those, like finally some real pizza. Yeah, that's that's a that's a memory. How about getting in trouble? Were What kind of kid were you in school? I mean, so obviously I was like a good kid. I never got bad grades. I remember distinctively in high school I was getting my first C. Yeah, that's how bad it was. I got as and b's all the time, and it was a C plus. It's like a seventy nine point nine, and the fucking

teacher didn't want to round me up. And I just remember being like, my dad's gonna be mad at this, and it's a fucking seed. I just remember like, just you know what, I'm just gonna tell him before the fucking report card even comes out. Let me, let me just get it because I was about to go on break. Yeah, and I was just like, hey, I got a C plus. I was like, but I'm gonna get it up. Don't worry. But I thought i'd let you know. And he respected me for for me telling him. But yeah,

I was a good student, man, I was. I always got rewards or is it awards, perfect, perfect attendance all the time. I got you know, four point er GPA. A lot of the times I never got in trouble, like like on campus doing dumb shit. So I never got suspended or anything like that, maybe since to the office a couple of times for like dumb shits. To this day, I mean, i've

ever since, ever since I first saw it in elementary school. I don't know if it was the first person, maybe Vanilla Ice the lines in the eyebrows. So I remember when I still saw the lines in my eye and if you know me, you know, to this day, I still do that. And it was an elementary school and I just remember seeing it and I was like, why is that so cool to me? And I remember my dad was like, yeah, if you want to do what I could do it for you. So I used to put lines in my eyebrows and

teachers hated me for that. They would send me to the Yeah, they'd be like, you know, you need to tell your mom to like she needs to put makeup and cover that. Yeah. Yeah. And then another thing that I used to do because again I see shit and I think it's cool. You know, like football players, they were their number on their chain. Yep, I had that, and so okay, so yeah that too, right, So so I was number eight growing up to this day.

That's still my favorite number and it was my soccer number, and so I had like a chain with like an eight, and they would send me to the office like, oh, that's gang related, like eight what They're like, yeah, that's gang Yeah. So I would get sent for like dumb shit. There wasn't even my fault, you know what I'm saying. But because the way I looked and I was into like the urban ship and I was into like the hip hop culture, that they always judged me on

that. But it was funny because every time my dad would get pissed and you would come down like I'll be there, and they would try to like, you know, oh, he's doing this, and my dad would be like, give me a favorite. Look up his academics right now. And they pull up and they'd be like, see that perfect attendance. See those straight a's like hauler at me when he gets like when he starts sucking up

in school. So I always loved that my dad like had my back in that sense because he knew that I was a good person and a good student. It's just I was being judged by the way I looked, or maybe some of the guys that I hung around with. But at the end of the day. I was still getting shit done. I was good kid as well to studious a's and b's until probably my junior year, eleventh grade,

like I'm almost done, I'm gonna start slacking. It's because you start more interesting girls and yeah, man again, I played all the sports during eleventh on the popular side. No, I wouldn't think so there were popular kids. I would I would see myself in the middle. Okay, I was somewhere in the I was a middle person. I was right there. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't. I mean, let's just do school

terms. There was always the nerds and the geeks and a lot of stuff, which you know, I was a band geek, but I was at like a hidden like you know. That's what I would always say, is I played the drums, right, I'm not like on the flute or something. But I was always in the middle. I wasn't the super popular ones, but I hung out with them. I had good friends. But yeah, my junior and senior years when I started slacking, start getting seized.

I think I had one d at one time. My parents were like tripping out on me. But yeah, I didn't get in trouble because I don't know if this happened in your school. You would always make friends with the security guard. Yeah, always had the security guard homies. And then also in my senior year, I had those birthdays where I turned eighteen my senior year, and you could sign yourself out. So I remember doing that a

lot for no reason. I was already driving, So you would just go to the office, show your ID and say, yeah, I'm signing myself out, and I would just leave for no reason, just because I could. Just like how I said with the lunch situation, when did you start did you start driving? Or when did you have a car right away? In high school? What maybe like tenth grade of senior years when I got my car, Conda Civic hatchback, the cheapest model fifth that stereotype even more.

I mean during that time that was that was the racing scene was the biggest thing. But my car was Yes, that's the kind of car people would soup up. My car was stock. It was just it wasn't lowered. It was it was pretty pathetic. Crazy fast forward to to my high school era, that's when Fast and the Furious came out, I think maybe a year prior, and so that was like the craze of like the hot

imports shit. Everyone was driving you know Accuras and Hondas and Civics and ship and so I actually started driving in Man pretty early, like I got my you know, permit as soon as you could. I got my license as soon as you could. Like my parents were on top of it, so I started driving one of their cars in maybe middle of sophomore year. And I got my car junior year, which, of course, during that fast and furious era, had a black Honda Chord. Had to fucking exhaust the

whole fucking shit, right, Although I didn't race because I didn't. I wasn't. I didn't like it for racing. I just liked the look of the car. So I had my black Honda Chord and yeah, man, it was dope during that era. But I went to Bullard and there's a lot of rich kids, so they had cars that just shit it online. But my group of friends we all rolled in those you know Accuris and Hondas and we would mob out with the fucking exhaust. Everybody hears, so that

was like a fun time. This is the reason why I didn't get my license till my senior year. Do you remember when you were sixteen seventeen, that's when you could start. There was a process, but when you turned eighteen, you could just take the test, yeah and get it. So I think I remember my parents were like, just wait till you're eighteen, and I was okay with it because I didn't want to go through the anxiety

of the process of yeah, because it is a process. Yeah, if you're sixteen seventeen, it's a whole I had to go to go to school, yes, yeah, I was like maybe like a week. My parents paid for that. That was off camp. That was a lot of money. And then you pay to like take the permit test, and I think i'd felt the first time, but then I passed, and then you have your permit tests or where you can like drive, but you still have to

have like an adult with you or something. It was like weird rules, right, and then like every six months, like the rules got a little lighter, and then you take your driver's tests and I don't know it, and then you can't like drive with someone under eighteen in your car for a while. But yeah, I went through that whole process that you're talking about. So that's what my parents were like, just wait till you're eighteen. You don't have to do any of that. And I was like, okay,

yes, and it all worked out. A funny story about getting my first car going into my senior year is do you know how to drive stick? A stick shift for this day? No? Okay? So my dad and I go get my car. We pick it out, red Honda Civic hatchback stock and I'm like, it's an automatic, right, and my dad's like, no, it's a stick and I'll like you, no, no,

it can't be. I don't know how. He's all, well, don't learn today, You're gonna learn day, and he forced me to drive it home and I did not know how to drive out so many times, so many times. But in retrospect it was a good thing because I could drive any car. During that time there was a lot of stick shifts. Yeah, and it was popular. Yeah, so yeah, I actually enjoyed it because you were driving. Yeah. I missed driving stick shift kind of gave you something to do, I guess, yeah, But that that was

my first car story of going into my senior year. Did you date during high school? No I or anything, So I didn't know that that's what it was like you were supposed to like just date one person. But there was a girl that I started talking to during my senior year and now looking back at it, oh man, I think we were together. But during that time, ye uh put a title on it. We were never official. I didn't know that that's what we were to do. But that's who

I would be with at school. That's who wore my jersey and was like we went to like prom with and stuff or no, I didn't. No, I didn't go to prom with Like to me, she was just my friend, but a friend that I would like go kiss, you know, kiss kiss goodbye in front of her house and we walked each other home or whatever. Yeah, but so no, I didn't really date. But I think I was into girls like let me go meet and try to like meet as many girls, but there was one particular girl that I would always just

hang out with. Yeah, I mean I always use this and maybe this was my reason. Maybe it was just my excuse, but I was just always like I'm just too much into my academics and sports that I just felt like I didn't really have time to or I didn't care. I guess I just didn't care too honestly. But yeah, I mean there were still girls that like I flirted with or like whenn't that mind dating? But I just never just did it. I don't know if this is a fact. I'm

trying to put my mind back to that mode of high school. I never knew, like I'm like I said, I'm just guessing I didn't. I wasn't sure the whole process of you having a girlfriend, Like to me, that didn't mean like to me, it didn't compute that oh like go look for go be with a girlfriend. You would have friends like, oh, man their boyfriend and girlfriend. But on my end, I'm like, like it do this. It wasn't a reality like oh wait, am I supposed

to look for a girl? But I would just I would like to hang out with girls, like we had to hang out and hang out. But yeah, I didn't have the concept of relationship in high school. Yeah, I mean, I guess that was the same way. Like again, I hung out with girls. I was. I was actually one of those dudes that kind of was cool with everybody, you know how you talk about like we were kind of in the middle. Yeah, like I talked to the

popular kids, but I also talking to their kids. Man, Like even the kids that were you know how they always say, hey, you should just go talk to that quiet kid. I was that dude to talk to the quiet kid. Man. I was cool with everybody. I was super cool with like the foreign exchange students that came in. I always thought that was cool. I would ask them questions about their country. So I was

never I was never like the bully, you know what I'm saying. I was always the one like, let me talk to the kids same they don't. They don't get talked to. And already hang out with like the white dudes. I'll hang out with the black dudes and mexic Like. I was cool with every the Asian dudes. And I think I think that's a honestly helped me in life because to this day, like everybody's like always cool with me, girls, guys, everybody, because I've always been that person just

opened to everybody. It's wild that I still remember a guy's name. His name is Portericay Porcay. He was a stutterer. He had like a heavy stutter and he wouldn't get made fun of. And I befriended him and I was like, ye know, we were hanging bro. Yeah, yeah, I remember, just like I'm going to befriend you. Yeah, just because I saw people making fun of them. Yeah, so I was like the same way. But you're but you're right, I hung out with everyone.

There's a good balance, right, especially like when you're in sports, then you really get to kind of more people. Yeah, yep, you know we had our best friends. You know, my god J c McKee. That was he lived like a few blocks away from me and we just go hang out. That was like my high school best friend. I think I liked hanging out with him because he was like a ladies man. He all the girls were always around you like, oh cool, it's gonna make it

easier for me. He was like he was the classic, like blonde hair, blue eye. Yeah, you know, he was our quarterback in junior high and then uh, you know we played We played all the sports together. But he's the one that taught me how to play baseball. Okay, so but yeah, I enjoyed hanging out with him, but he became my best friend. But yeah, I think it's because you got so many girls hanging out with you, so I want to hang out with this guy.

Did you guys have a sober grad or end of the year trip or anything like that. Oh man, I think we did, but I don't even remember going. Or I think we did, but I didn't go. Okay, we did. Add I think it was Disneyland during my year, but I didn't end up going. Oh wait, grad night is that the same? Oh? Yeah, we had grad night? Yea. I was like two, So sober grad is something we did, like in town. And then there was a grad night. Yeah we didn't. We didn't do that.

It was just grad night. And where was that Disneyland? Oh Disneyland? Okay, yea, Yeah, I remember enjoying that. I was with a group of friends. That that was a fun night. Yeah. Fast forward to me going into radio too. Let's see through two to three years later, I was in radio. Isn't crazy? And I was DJing grad nights. Wow, that's the same for me. I was in high school and then a year or later I'm in radio. That's so wild to me. Yeah, wow, way to go, like this has basically been my

my job my entire life. And you're too right. I mean, I mean, you know, in high school, I had my we talked about and we talked about my fucking funeral home that I worked at. But yeah, I mean for the most part. Yeah, radio has been our career from the get We've been blessed. Yeah, twenty like basically we're reaching twenty years. I've reached twenty years. Yeah, I'm getting there. You're getting there. And yeah, so man, how crazy our life is from from

school to now school to now. Yeah. So with that being said, back to school season, shout out to everybody returning to school, whether that's you know, high school, college, elementary, middle school, junior high or whatever. Yeah, we didn't even get to the college. Yeah, I mean, do we want to touch on it? And we might have to say that I wasn't. I wasn't a big college student. College was

not for me. I tried. I even tried going to Davry. Yeah, Davry Institute was what are those colleges called the trade school the trade schools where you just learned about our computers and stuff. And then I all, I already started having interest in radio, So I started majoring in communications with

a broadcasting thing. And I just remember in college, I just I could not I don't know if it was my add but I just could not sit there through a class, say, man, I just couldn't we almost have the same like schooling experience because I did the same I mean I do. I did some community college shout out Fresno City College out here, and then I got into Fresno State and I did it, and I just I didn't

care anymore. At least I was during the time where I started to get into radio and I was doing part time stuff and it was just like, man, I could be a full time or now, but I didn't really want to. But I still needed some some classes to finish college. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm like not even caring. I'm even like failing classes to waste of money. I'm checked out at this point because I know what I really want to do. Speaking of money, I wanted to

ask you that just because you know, I never went to state. Yea, there's no state you know sort of thing. What was the financial situation were you paying? Like, okay, so and so I was hell of good in high school. I had grants to take care of my ride. Yeah yeah, so my ride was taken care of all right. Yeah yeah, so it was almost worth giving it a shot. Yeah yeah. So you know, like I had you know, FAFTSA shit paid for my you know, school at City College, and then my grants were taking care of

my state college. And uh but I was wasting a lot of money on books and you know, time and energy and just didn't want to be there. And when the opportunity came for me to be a full on on air personality and I wanted that's really where I wanted to invest my time and energy, I just I just dropped out and I was like, I'm over this, you know what I'm saying, yeah, real quick with mine same mine was all was community colleges. Yeah, so Chafee Community College was my first

school. And of course it's it was so hard for me to make friends because you had your friends already. Hardly anyone was ever in class. There's maybe like five people in a class. This is definitely a different vibe man. Yeah. So it's yeah, and you're trying to get that feeling of school, yeah, of high school, but it was it just wasn't And so you were I'm assuming you were like in town, right, yeah. Yeah, see a lot I know other people that really got that college experience

by going to another city, sleeping in dorms. I mean, I live out here, so I was. I mean it was easy obviously didn't have to pay for any of that stuff, but it just never felt like that college experience, like, uh, kind of just still going to school and I don't really want to be here, and I have a choice not to

be here, so I took it. I even did a thing where I started dating somebody in college, but she lived far away, okay, and she lived in Pasadena, which was a good forty five minutes away from where I was living, and I transferred schools just so I was that guy. But that school also had like a radio broadcasting department, and so I took those classes, just those classes, and I remember understanding everything they were teaching.

I understood it, and to the point where the teachers were always using me as the guy that John, can you come up here the class show the class how to do this demonstrator? Yeah, I just understood radio. And then fast forward to me winning that contest during my college years in Pasadena and me leaving because I got the job I wanted. Yeah, it's like, why this is why I'm going to school for it, but I already got the job selling. I don't know if that's a good mentality. But

that was my mentality, Like this was my goal. Yeah, why am I still going to school to reach the goal that I already have. That was pretty much my mentality. That was like, yes, I guess again, whatever works for your life. You know what I'm saying. That's I'm not here to tell you what you should and shouldn't do, but whatever works for your life, do that. This is what worked for my life. I'll end with that. There it is until next time. This could give me fire. Podcasts