I hope you're sitting down since you're literally going to know my entire life story, from top to bottom. A lot of people always wondered why I am who I am, and now the world will know why! I hope you enjoy as this is just the story of my life :-)
I'm a 26 year old male who was originally born in Kew Gardens, NY on December 31st, 1981. My ethnicity is half Cuban and half Puerto Rican as I'm a very simple guy with basic fundamentals, morals, and ethics. I love heavy metal, it's the music of my life. My all-time favorite band is SLAYER. I’ve seen them twice in concert, and their music speaks to me. No, I’m not some evil guy who burns alive people for sacrifice, it’s just music that lets me vent. You'll ALWAYS find me listening to music, I always have my mp3 player on me pretty much all the time. Video games are another big part of my life, ever since I was small, I use to idolize characters like Super Mario, Mega Man, Zelda, etc. Now I'm more into mature games, but some of my current heroes are guys like Max Payne, Solid Snake, and Kratos (the God of War!). As of right now, I'm HOOKED on the infamous World of WarCraft, I'm a Level 70 Undead Discipline/Holy Priest and the GM of the guild Postmortem on the server Thrall! My character’s name is Slayerfaith. When it comes to my friends and family, they are what help shape my memories.
Just to finish up about WoW, it’s been a big part of my life for the past 4 years. All the raids and stuff I’ve been able to be a part of have been some awesome memories for me. It’s pretty cool being a Guild Master, but overall, I’m just glad I’m able to raid with a bunch of my real life friends. Check out pics of my character! I’ve worked very hard to achieve all that gear and experience!
I love spending time on my cell phone, text messaging, the whole works. I enjoy checking the weather, latest news, all that fun stuff. When it comes to sports, the NFL has always been my favorite sport to watch. However, I’m trying to get into a new sport, maybe the MLB or something, still haven’t figured it out yet. While growing up, I'd always watch the NFL Playoffs and of course, The SuperBowl! I didn't really have a team while growing up, but I always rooted for the NY teams. It wasn't really until around 1995, that I pledged my allegiance to the NY Jets! Now I love them, and I've always been a faithful fan. People might make fun of me, but no matter HOW good or bad they do, I still wear their colors with pride :-)
Right now I have a steady/long-term relationship with my girlfriend Delilah, we live together and everything. When I first met her, we clicked like you would have no idea. We get along so great, share lots of laughs, memories, and most of all, she's amazing. You can see pics of us here if you want! Ever since I can remember, I've always been a major romantic and I knew that ONE DAY, I'd be blessed in that department, and I am very grateful to have her by my side.
Work means a lot to me as it's really all I ever do. I've spent almost five years at Best Buy and they've definitely shaped my life in a positive way. I'm very proud of my Career there, but not only that, but the people, both co-workers and customers that I've met have made it all special. Everyone I work with are like a second Family to me and some customers truly make it worth working in retail. I know retail can be f**king crazy sometimes but wow, you wouldn't believe all the stories I've gathered up through the years! At the end of the day though, I'm proud of what I do, what I've done, and what I'll eventually accomplish.
In some interesting facts about me, I can actually type anywhere between 100-140 words per minute. It started when I was like 2 years old, I use to type up stuff on those huge old black IBM Typewriters, and that is what started it all. I remember I use to create X-Men Newsletters and give them to my Family, LoL yes, I was just two years old. It's what helped me achieve such success with my old ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) Newsletter (It ended with over 1600+ Subscribers) and WebSite (ended with over 165,000+ hits).
ECW was another major part of my life since about 1996, I was really into ECW and the whole "wrestling" phase. I've been to about 50+ of those live shows from places like Philadelphia, Florida, Poughkeepsie, and of course, right here in Queens at the infamous "Madhouse of Extreme". I use to be up until 2:00am every Saturday JUST to watch the 1 hour of "HardCore TV" and man, those were some great times. All those Bus Trips were priceless and again, all the people I met through it made it some of the best years of my life, LoL I sometimes felt like a celebrity. I can't even BEGIN to explain how intense it is that due to a rather popular Newsletter/WebSite that I, an 18 year old at the time did, got people to ask me for my f**king autograph! LoL isn't that crazy? So I use to sign stuff under my old school nickname of "Luis aka Mr. Slick" :-)
Once ECW went bankrupt, I was SO into running a WebSite & Newsletter that I figured if I could do those for wrestling, I could probably do it for an NFL Team. It was definitely a lot harder, and I managed to do it for a few years but it wasn't as successful as my ECW stuff. I guess I was doing that ECW stuff at the right time in my life. The Jets Express Newsletter ended up with about 300+ Subscribers and about 65,000+ hits for the WebSite JetsExpress.com. I enjoyed it but it was very overwhelming, especially when at the time, I just got a job (Best Buy what?) that was giving me full-time hours and honestly, I couldn't commit to it. I eventually put them both to rest and focused on Best Buy.
For my academic Career, I went to Ascension School (Catholic) for Grammar School and those were some AMAZING years, LoL especially Grades 6, 7, and 8. It's funny to think back since those were some special years. You know the drill, all the dancing at parties, weird moments with girls, and of course, the famous "KIT" friendships! All of this was going on when I was really big on Rap, R&B, and Reggae. After that, I went to Archbishop Molloy High School which was special since it was an all-boy Catholic High School for like 8,489 years until the year I graduated. I thought it was really cute how they decided to go co-ed in 2000. I swear, I never screamed F**KING A that loud in my entire life ;-)
It was at Molloy I was involved in a miracle which to this day, still makes me somewhat teary eyed. See, during my Grammar/High School years, I really didn't give a crap about academics. I sucked in Math and anything related with Science. I remember my Freshman Year, I failed Math and Biology and of course, had to goto Summer School. I can't tell you how much I hated Summer School, not only that, but I went to a Catholic Summer School who were known for making everyone wear pants even if it was 37,581 degrees outside. Then in my Sophomore year I failed Math and Chemistry, so another consecutive year with Summer School. Then of course in my Junior year, one would think I'd smarten up and work/study harder but SO not the case! LoL I failed Math and Earth Science but here's the kicker, I was just ONE POINT away from flunking out of High School completely! If not for barely passing another class, I would have had to goto a different school all together since their rule was if you failed 3 or more, you're gone. So I barely made it and YET AGAIN, another straight year of Summer School. It was marvelous since every year, my Family got to go to Florida for the yearly Family Vacation in our Condo in Florida and guess who didn't get to go since he had Summer School? Oh yes, ME!
So it's my Senior Year... THE year. I said to myself, I can't do this sh*t anymore, for once in my life, I want to have a summer to myself to GO on vacation, relax, and do normal things like any other teenager at the time. So during the first half of the Semester, I kept on messing up. I put myself in a special situation where I set myself up where I had to pass each and EVERY final to pass all my classes all together and have NO Summer School. If I passed every final, it would mean I'd pass all my classes, graduate on time, and just for once, be like everyone else. So the second half of the semester, I took it SO serious that I stopped hanging out, going to parties, and even dating! This was in like 2000 and I stopped listening to Gangsta Rap and switched over to rock. At the time I loved bands like Papa Roach, Sugar Ray, KoRn, Foo Fighters, Metallica, SlipKnot, and Disturbed. Anywho, here comes the week of Finals.
So now I realize EVERYTHING is on the line, if I don't pass each and every final, I'm going to another year of Summer School, another year of disappointment in myself and you know I'd SO hear it from all my Family and Friends. So it was around this time that I was kinda big into sports, and my ex-best friend at the time showed me some ESPN Video featuring highlights of the millennium featuring the song "Dream On" by AeroSmith. When I heard this song, I was HOOKED, and it was just so inspirational to me, that it motivated me to the extreme! So I eventually downloaded this song (Napster what?) and used it to help guide and inspire me in my studying. So here I am, in the infamous "Finals Week" and I kid you not, I'm studying my little heart out like you have no idea. My right hand is killing me from all the handwritten notes I made on each and every subject. I didn't sleep at all or eat anything really since ALL I did was study, study, study! Most of my exams were in the morning, so I'd have the rest of the day to study for another final exam the following day.
As the days went by, and I kept on taking the final exams, I just kept listening to "Dream On" and honestly, I prayed like I never prayed before. I know it wasn't that bright an idea to put myself in that situation where I had to pass every exam to barely pass my classes to just graduate on time and everything but these were the cards I was dealt with. So as the week goes by, my eyes are bloodshot, my body, mind, and soul are exhausted and I'm just taking them one by one. Finally, it was all over, I took my last two exams ironically on the same day... Math and another type of Science class. The two classes I constantly failed time and time again would be taken on that Thursday back to back with just 2 hours in between. I went in, took them, and breathed a sigh of relief that it was all over. I did the best I could and now the results are in their hands.
I remember I actually made a single CD since at the time, I had a CD Player, and all it had was that song "Dream On" during all this. So of course, I had all the crap about my future going through my head throughout that weekend. My friends at the time tried their absolute best to get me to unwind and relax but imagine what YOU would be thinking/going through if you had all this on your mind. The past three years you f**ked up and had to goto Summer School and now, everything was on the line and although you know you did your best, in the back of your head you feel that maybe you messed up again and you're back to square one.
So I go into school on Monday morning, nice and early at Archbishop Molloy High School and you know, it's nice and warm outside. I didn't need to bring a jacket or anything since it's June 28th, 2000. There is that tense feeling in the air since now I'm about to go into the Gym and get the results. So I'm going in and found out 3 of the 5 final exams I took I passed, but still had to find out the results for the Math and Science one. So I'm like here we go, this is it. Weeks of preparation, sleepless nights, I had to have lost like 20 pounds since I didn't eat much, and sent out more prayers then you can count and the results are feet away. I go talk to my Math teacher at the time and she said, I PASSED!!! Now I'm like oh man, I'm halfway there. So I'm about to goto the Science table and talk to my Science teacher and get the results of my exam. I goto him and ask him, he looks up my name and starts to think to himself. I'm there sweating, itching to find out how the hell I did. His exact words were: "Well Tirado, you put down just enough to pass", I was like OH MY GOD!!! I did it! I f**king did it!!! After that, I raced home to tell the world, and I'm not gonna lie, on the subway train ride home, I was in tears. I was blasting "Dream On" on my CD player and just couldn't believe that for once, I worked hard and it payed off big time. I didn't have Summer School, got to go on the Family Vacation for the first time in three years, and it was just a huge sigh of relief. I came home and let the world know, and man, my whole Family and Friends were just so happy and proud of me. My High School Graduation was amazing since it just felt even sweeter, knowing I pulled off one of my own little miracles :-)
It's funny since after that, I literally breezed through College, I went to Queensborough and ended up with a 3.8 GPA. I ended up getting an Associates Degree in Computer Information Science (Software track) and it goes to show that I had this potential in me the whole time. Sometimes I wish I was like that throughout my whole academic career but it's cool, I can't change the past. So after I spent about 3 years at QCC, I decided that it was time for me the enter the working force. I never had a job really, I was mainly a Computer Technician for hire but I didn't work anywhere specific. So it was around the end of August, I decided to go looking for a job. I contacted probably 15 places, but no one was hiring. I was kinda annoyed since nobody bothered to give me chance and I always said that whoever ended up hiring me, would be in for the biggest surprise ever. So I kept calling places and visiting places, using the newspaper, you name it, and still nothing! So it was really late one night, like at around 3:00am or so, and I said, just for giggles, let me try BestBuy.com and take their little Careers online job application thingamajig. I applied for a position in their Computer Technician department.
So I filled it out the best I could, and literally, the next day I got a phonecall from a Best Buy Manager, so he asked me a bunch of questions and I got them all right, so he asked me to come in for an interview later that week with my resume. So I went, got all dressed up to look spiffy and aced that interview! He told me to come in on Monday to meet the General Manager at the time for the final interview and if I passed that, I'd be hired. He told me that he really wanted me to be a part of his team and that I seemed like a "man of integrity". I go in for that final interview with the GM and she said she never really met someone who always kept smiling. LoL I just told her it's just who I really am, she shook my hand, and I was hired.
Almost five years later, I'm still going strong and loving every second of it. I've been named Store MVP five times and Department MVP twice! I started from the bottom and have worked my way up, and I'm just so proud of myself. My thing is, I'm not going to do something half a**ed or anything, it's 110% or nothing.
A lot of people always ask me what is my secret to being so positive and enthusiastic and it's real simple… live life to the fullest! Always be humble for what you have, who you have, what you've done, and what you’re about to do. I say that because too many times, people don't realize what they have. Always remember no matter WHAT you go through in life, someone out there has it much, much worse. Always keep your family, friends, and significant other close and let them know how much they mean to you. Finally, always be proud of who you are and what you've done so far in your life. What you do now echoes forever because years from now, whether you're dead or alive, you have to make sure you name leaves a positive mark. All I know for me, I want people to remember me and at least my smile. Remember me as that guy who kept fighting for whatever he wanted to achieve, and most of all, remember me for my integrity. Remember my initials on a high note, because one thing I’ve always believed in (as it’s one of my LTJ Quotes): “Love me or hate me, you will never forget meâ€
