Episode 6 - Before We Met

Before there was an us,  😅 In this episode, we’re taking it way back—sharing what our lives looked like before we met. From who we were, where we grew up, and the things we wished we had growing up, you’ll get the full backstory (yes, even the cringey parts).

🎧 Tune in for laughs, real talk, and a reminder that sometimes, the best love stories start when you least expect it.

💬 What was your life like before you met your person? Share it with us! #BeforeUs #LoveStory #CoupleGoals #PodcastLife #UnfilteredUs #RelationshipJourney #RealTalk

Go support us by following us on socials!

Instagram: @unfiltered_us_podcast

Miguel's Instagram: @wealthy.1

Susie's Instagram: @sdguzman98

Transcript

Episode 6 - Before We Met

 You're listening to unfiltered us, where we keep it real and unscripted. I'm your host, Susie, along with my husband, Miguel. Ready to dive in? Let's get started. All right. Welcome. Episode six. Yes. Another one, another one. Let's get it. So we talked so far about our story when we met. But one of the things we left out that we wanted to share with you guys is what were our lives before we met? I think, you know, you had brought that up in regards to us talking about that and people maybe not knowing a lot about us before we met. And so that's what we want to talk about today. We're going to talk about little Susie and little Miguel. Yes, Miguelito. Did they call you? No, they did not call me Susie. I don't know. Actually, everybody calls me Sue, which is a fun fact. My family calls me Sue. Nobody calls me Susie. Everyone calls me Sue. Sue? That sounds like an old lady's name. Well. They always, you know, they always call me Miguelito because my dad's name obviously was Miguel as well too. And for the longest time, that was my name, Miguelito. Right. And it wasn't until they started calling our son Miguelito that I was like, wait, that's my name. And then it was weird when we would go visit our my, my side of the family and all my dad's and Theo's were and cousins were calling me Miguelito. And then Miguelito, our son was there. And I'm like, this is weird. Like there's like too many Miguel's in our family. You know, there actually is way too many Miguel's in our family. Even on my side of the family. Yeah. I mean, it's a great name. So I think his. As Hispanics, we could definitely be more creative. I feel like we're stuck on the same kind of name. You know, I. And it's funny now that you said that as far as Hispanics with the name, my name, I think it sounds so much better when you say it in Spanish than when you say it in English. You know, a lot of people will say, Miguel, right? But when you say it in Spanish, Miguel, it sounds amazing. So where? My name is very white. Yeah, well, my sister's names are very white. And so we can talk about how you got that name, so. Well, I was named after my grandma. Except that her her name is actually Susannah. But they didn't call me. They didn't name me Susannah. They called. They named me Susie, of course. And then they shortened it down to even more to suit who might as well call you ass. All right, so let's let's do that. Let's talk. Um, maybe you can start and we'll go back and forth as far as, you know, where you were born and. Okay. We could start. Yeah. Um, I was born here in Las Vegas, so I, I mean, I don't know any other city or town or nothing, like, I literally was born here and grew up here. My parents, I think I've mentioned before, met here. They didn't meet in Mexico, like a lot of people think they did. I actually already had my my brother was already in the picture. My brother is not my dad's son. Biological son, biological son. Um, they. So when my parents got together meet Henry was already. Here, you know. So when I was born, Henry was five years old. I came into Henry's life. And from what I hear, he wasn't too excited about that. And then, uh, then came along. My two sisters, Kim and Cindy. Cindy is the youngest. Kim is the middle one. And we grew up. We grew up very poor. We lived in section eight housing, um, for many years, right there on 28th Street and Cedar. If you guys know that side of town in Las Vegas, did you know growing up that you were a part of section eight? No, I did not. Not until I grew up. And then my mom told me that they used to pay like 60 bucks a month. So section eight for maybe the people that don't know that's actually like subsidized housing, right? Right. Like for from a government agency. Right. Given to families of obviously very low income. Correct. And so my we lived there for many years. I up until I was in third grade, which we've talked about, that where I ended up moving over to the East side because 20th Street and Cedars, kind of like North Las Vegas, kind of sorta. It's like north and east. Yeah, it's like right there in the middle nowadays, with as much west and north as there is back then. That was almost north west. Yeah. That was probably. Yeah. Very true. There wasn't a whole lot more. Yes. And so we grew up there until my parents. Um, we're able to, like, rent out a house finally, because imagine there's six of us and we're living in. From what I remember, I mean, because that was so long ago, it was only like a two bedroom apartment. And so for six of us, that's we're definitely cramping us in. And we ended up moving into a house that was on Bruce and like Bonanza area. And I remember that house so distinctly and I don't know why, but I do have a lot of vivid memories of that house because I remember one time we were robbed. Oh, no. And I liked it. And I don't know why I remember the story, but I think I remember the story because I always when my mom went to work early in the morning, like at 4:00 in the morning, for some reason, I'd always make sure she made it to the car. Okay. Is that so? I don't know why. I distinctly always remember waking up and my mom never knew. Like I would wait until she walked out the door and I would think she still knows I would appear out the door to make sure she got to the car. Okay. And I don't know if that's just being like an old me being like the older sister. Like being protective of now my mom. And one time I remember I did not get up and that was the day that the car got robbed. They took like back then they would take stereos. Nowadays nobody takes stereos I don't even like. But back then they would take stereos and stuff like that. And I remember feeling so guilty that I didn't wake up that morning to see my mom go out the door because we were robbed that day. That's crazy. It is crazy. Then I remember the cops coming. So we didn't stay in that house for very long until we moved into the east side, which is the house I ended up really growing up in. Which is the house the very first house my parents purchased, which was on Sahara and Nellis. You know what's what's amazing about hearing this part of your story is that there are so many people today that could probably relate to that. Number one. Um, and they kind of went through the same thing where the evolution. Right. And how they maybe from when from renting to buying. But there are also a lot of people that may be going through that right now. You know, and I always admire and love the fact that, um, your parents always did their best to keep improving. Yeah, right. And taking you guys out of where you were racing, where you grew up and to obviously better because since I've met you, they've always increased and improved when they lived and definitely went from being very poor. Section eight housing to taking the step to renting a home to nowadays them having three properties, all paid off. Yes. You know, like in and that's amazing. Their life in Mexico and half of it here and not really worrying. So the evolution of of really them growing here in the United States in a sense. But the point that I was trying to make is how there might be some people going through that right now that they might listen to this, or they might heard about this, and they might have a little bit of hope thinking, man, that that's going to be me. That will be me. You know, we will get out of this. We will improve. We will get better housing. We will be, you know, moving into a better area of town. Because there's also, on the other hand, of that there's also people that just kind of probably still live in those apartments that you guys grew up and probably still there, you know, that they just never evolved. Correct. I attribute a lot of it to my dad. He definitely worked his butt off. There was times that I did not see him. Like he would, uh, go to work, like, I don't know, like, I want to say, like he he was trying to grow his landscaping business at the time, so he was fairly new at landscaping. So I remember he would go do his landscaping work. Um, let's just say, like, at six in the morning, he'd get home, like, at two in the afternoon, he would, uh, eat, sleep for a little bit, and then he would start working at Jerry's Nuggets because he worked for Jerry's Nugget for many years. So he had two jobs. He did. The first one was kind of like his business, you know, the second one was obviously a job to have the steady income. So he worked, I want to say from like 5 to 2 in, you know, like five in the afternoon to two in the morning or something like that. And then he'd come home, sleep for like two, three hours, get up, start all over again at 6:00 in the morning. So I attribute a lot to him. He definitely did so much to make us not grow up poor. Like he really at least got us to middle class for sure. Right? Um, and so it's it's really because of his hard work. I feel like we aren't where we are. Nice. Talk about maybe growing up with siblings, because that's obviously we come from two completely different backgrounds. When it comes down to, I mean, growing up with siblings, because even though you have seven, you're like one of seven, correct? You didn't really grow up with them, correct? Um, yes. But siblings is interesting, especially when you have three sisters who are so close in age because it's me. And then it's my sister Kim, who's only two years difference from me. And then Cindy, who's only a year and a half difference from Kim. So between me and Cindy's like three and a half years, which is right. You guys are all very close. We're very, very close. And even when my parents purchased their very first house, we still had a shared room for all three of you, the three of us, because it was only a three bedroom. So my brother, being the only boy, got his own room. Yeah, he's the favorite. And then it was your mom's story. And then my parents obviously had the master bedroom. And so it was a lot of stealing clothes back and forth or like, where is my stuff now? You know what? I don't know if it was because me and my brother, he I was the next after my brother that I played with a lot of my brother's toys. I played with a lot of Transformers. Like, I was such a tomboy when it came to toys, and I and my brother obviously hated that because I was taking his toys, but I was definitely into more boy toys than girl toys. I'm sure my younger two sisters probably like more of the girl toys, but the toys, when it came down to toys, it was definitely me and my brother fighting for the toys and clothes. You said. And the clothes was with my sisters, but we grew up very close even till this day. The four of us. Did Henry ever borrow your clothes? No, Henry did not. Borrowing clothes. I'm just curious. Uh, no. But he would make me braid his hair because he grew his hair very. Ah. Let's see, I knew there was something there, but it, uh, we were very close, even to this day. And I don't know if that was because we had to share a room or because, uh, you know, I just. We're so close in age. Yeah, the four of us are very close. Like, we have weekly sibling dates. We see each other on the weekends, like we hang out a lot, which I absolutely love, because then that's how our children are growing up. Our children grow up very close to their cousins. We always have family barbecues that we're always definitely together. Yeah, I love that. I love that my parents were able to instill that on us. Like. You know, we're family. We're close together, right? And even until this day, that's very true. Yeah. That's true. And I know I joke a lot about your brother, but, you know, it's, uh. I love your brothers. I know, and he loves it when I joke with him, you know, and I tell him things. So he. He texted me a picture of his new shoes yesterday. Some new balance's he bought there. I want to say there. The color is Ross blue. Oh, okay. And he goes, I just bought these for work. I bet you they make me run fast. So there you go. If you know my brother, he's a whole five foot two. Like. Yeah, he's a good time, though. Very tall, but probably the funniest person I know. He's such a comedian and we tell him all the time he should be a comedian. And he actually does stand up, but he never tells us because he's. He says he would get nervous if he saw us in the crowd. So we actually never seen him do stand up even though. From what I hear, he's actually hilarious and a lot of people like him. That's awesome. So if you guys ever see a Henry Camacho. Yeah, let us know where he's performing. Yeah, let us know. We'd love to go watch him perform. Okay. Well, let's go into you. I mean, I shared up to, like, probably third grade, but that was third grade. Yeah, I know it was longer, but so I was. I was born in Venezuela, right. And, uh, in a city called Puerto la Cruz and very close to the beach, in fact, um, I, my mom had an apartment and it was a four bedroom apartment and three bedrooms face the, the the street side and one bedroom face the beach and the window facing the beach. And that was actually mine. So I, I think I had the best. Yeah. You freaking had a four bedroom apartment by yourself. Not by myself. I mean, we could have moved in with you. I wouldn't know by myself, but I mean, it was my mom and I. Yeah. So, of course, my dad passed away when I was, uh, almost two years old. And so I don't really have a whole lot of memories that I can tell you of me remembering my dad. Uh, as far as me being alive and him being alive and us together, I, I, I, I, I, I do not recall any memories. The only thing I know about my dad is through pictures, you know, and and there are so little. Yeah. And there are some people that could remember maybe at that age, but I think it was 20 months when he passed away. So it was literally less than two years old. So I don't remember. Um, so I grew up with the single mom. And I remember we lived in not the best area of town, even though, um, it may seem like it's a four bedroom apartment, you know, but it was a small apartment, and I remember going to kindergarten. She would drop me off in kindergarten and would pick me up. And it's funny because some one one time I, I don't remember how I had this conversation with somebody, but I remember she would drop me off before going to work so she would have to drop me off early before school started, like sometimes an hour and a half before school started. And I remember one time she dropped me off in kindergarten and it was early as always, right? 130. But it happened to be that there was no school that day, and I don't know how she missed it, but I was there in the school. Oh my God, by myself that nobody thought, hey, what's that little kid doing there? I went, so once I realized there was no school like the time the school was supposed to start and there was nobody there, I ended up going to the back of the school where kind of like the the playground was in the front. So I went to the back where like the garden was, and I just sat there. I remember sitting there, oh my goodness, all the way down until like 5:00 that she came to pick me up. I sat by myself all day in the school. I I'll never forget that. I'll never. Because you remember her reaction. I remember telling her there was no school. I don't know what she and she was. She was like, all right, well, let's go home, you know? And so I remember, I remember that I remember, um, I had very little interaction with my dad's side of the family. Um, when my dad passed away, there was he had businesses, he had a coffee farm, and he had a construction company, like a concrete company, the concrete mixers, he had a bunch of those, and he had a coffee and a coffee farm. And I remember as I was growing up and I the the interaction that I did have with my dad's side of the family, once I started learning that my dad did have all these businesses and coffee farms and stuff. I remember thinking, how come like I'm not a part of that, you know, like, how come I'm. I'm not into that type of life because my dad was he he loved horses. He had cattle. He was all about that farmer life. Rancho life, you know, that was him, believe it or not. And so I can relate a lot to that in the Mexican culture because that was my dad. That was what, you know. And then later on, my brother, he ended up having farm. So, uh, which I love that lifestyle, right, with the horses and all that stuff. But, um, I remember asking my mom like, hey, how come? Like, I'm not a part of that? How come? You know, and and she said that when my dad passed away that I don't know if there was fights between or they thought my mom was gonna get the business or claim something, and she'd mentioned something in regards to. They didn't want my mom to have anything. They didn't want her to be a part or have anything about, you know, my dad's business is. And so she never fought it. And she was just like, I don't need it, you know? I mean, I have my son and and and for people to realize this, I'm the last of seven. And my mom had six kids with her first marriage. Her first kid that she had, she was 15. That's how they did her back in the days, right? And my, that her last child, which is my sister from the first marriage. We're 20 years apart. So my mom had kids pretty much from 15 all the way down to 24. She has six kids. And then when she was 44, that's when she had me. So my mom was already older, you know? And by this time, she figured, well, my dad's gone. This is this is it. This is just me and my son. And that's really how it was that I know of. My mom didn't have any other boyfriend, and they didn't never introduce me to a man in her life. Nothing. She dedicated her life 100% to me. And so we grew up like that. I remember our first, second and third grade. I went to a school right by my house, and we were just talking about this the other day on how I kind of grew up by myself, in a sense, because I would go to school, I would walk to school when I was in first, first through third grade, I would walk to school and I would walk back and I would have a key to our house, and I would lock up when I would get there and wait for my mom to come in. So I really grew up, um, by myself in a sense. You know, I did have nieces and nephews that are about the same age as me, and I would see them every once in a while, and at times it did stay with us for a little bit, but then they would go back with my sister. And so I do remember kind of growing up with them, and I remember seeing them, of course, during summer and on the weekends. Right. But on a regular day to day basis, Monday through Friday, it was just my mom and I. And so that was that was that was when you don't know any better, right. You can look back and you could say I that was awesome. Right. But at the same time you're always thinking, man, what if I would have had two more siblings? You know, kind of like, yeah, like you did. You know, what would have life would have been like, you know. And so, um, a lot of people call the single child syndrome. Yes. Right. When, you know, you have certain things, but when you don't know any better, that's what it is, because it's, it's there is no one there for you to share with everything that you have. It's yours. And I still have some of those tendencies. Sometimes it's a little hard for you to give up. Some, like baby Share and you're like, it's mine though. Yeah. Oh my God, my, you gotta get yours. Oh, I'm like, uh, yeah. You still suffer from single child syndrome again when you don't know any better. That's all the programming you have. So you don't think there's anything wrong with this? Yeah, this is mine. We're not the oldest. And I'm like, I don't know what to share. Everything okay? We we share everything. So in that aspect, obviously we grow very different, you know, because we did because and and kind of going back to our relationship, you know, that's some of the tendencies I brought up with me, you know, because even until we met that I was 16, when I met you, I, I was still living with my mom, you know, and it was just me and her. And so everything she bought was mine for you, you know, it was there was nobody else to share with. But, um, you know, we we didn't grow up middle class. I, I would say we grew up very lower middle class now. We were not poor. We were not in section eight. Uh, my mom used to work for the police department, and so she was connected to a lot of, um, people that she would do, uh, things for, like, she would help them with the process of certain things, um, when they were registering businesses. So it's it's it was a police department, but it was kind of like, um. I know she she was. She didn't work exactly for the police, although in that department, that's where they did a lot of things for businesses and people and licenses and things like that. And so I remember growing up, a lot of people that she helped paid her with goods. I remember she would come home and she would hire some guys to bring back, like sacks and £50 of bags of rice and sugar because they would pay her with that. Or like the big old platinum's, you know how they have the big old platinum trees. You know, they cut those big old things. They would pay her with that. And so we one of the extra rooms that we had in the apartment was like a, like a doomsday prepper room. Wow. Where we I, I promise you, where there was black beans, there was rice. So what do you pay her, though? Weren't they supposed to pay the place for her? Well, they would they would kind of pay, like, be grateful for what they did. Okay, okay. Because she would do the favors for them. Obviously they had to pay whatever fees. Okay. Yeah. No. I'm like, your mom is running a maybe. That was that was her side hustle. Her side hustle. That's where we that's where I get it from. But yeah. So we we I saw a lot of that coming into my house, you know, and so, um, that abundance of having, in a sense, food in your house. That I had, you know, I had that I grew up with that of like it wasn't just like one thing. It was a lot of that one thing because of that and because she, she had, you know, those connections that she can. And if you're familiar, obviously the country that I'm from in Venezuela, there is a lot of these things where sometimes a certain type of food is not available, right, because there is shortage. But she had it. We never we never lacked of anything, I promise. You was running a lot. She had like a business, a low key business on the side, a side hustle. Yeah. But you know, I think looking back, one of the questions that I had for you and then I'll answer the same question. Is there anything you wish you had growing up like? And I know what my answer is going to be, but looking back right now, when you were, uh, little or a little girl or you kind of were like maybe eight, nine, ten. Is there anything you wish you had then? I don't know if I maybe like. I remember roller skating was very popular at one point, and, um, we just couldn't afford roller skates because if they bought me roller skates, they were going to have to buy my sister's roller skates. And so it's kind of how, if I can't afford it for one child, like, not like if I can't afford it for all three children. Sorry for I well, Henry, probably I don't know if Henry wanted roller skates, but if I can't afford it for all the kids, like you can't have it. So I never learned how to roller skate because of it. Because it's never too late. I know that's true. I should go to the skating rink. Are you limiting yourself right now? Uh, but it was a lot of that. Like, if we can't afford it for all the kids, like you can't. You can't have it. It's just not fair to everyone. So there was a lot of maybe sometimes, like designer, like maybe some designer shoes or some like nice. You were aware of designer shoes, but I don't know if I want to say designer. Not like Versace or like, but like for me, like a Nike, like a nice Nike shoe. Gonna shoot. It just wasn't feasible, like I didn't same. Something like that. Yeah. You know, I, I'm not. When I say designer, I don't mean like so much like. The really high end. I meant like just a simple Nike or Adidas. It just wasn't. We were Payless kids for sure. Like we went to Payless, whatever. Payless had that that that's what you got. And so sometimes I wish I would have been able to have like a nice Nike shoe, Adidas shoe, maybe even when it came to like certain outfits, like a Jordache pant, which doesn't really exist anymore. And I don't know if anyone will know what that is, but did you get that at back then, Jordache? Some Jordache jeans. I would have loved some of those. I didn't get those. So just simple things like that, that like I said, since none of all of us could get it, then none of us got it. Yeah. For me, very similar. For me, there's two things, uh, because I'm obviously preparing for this talk today. I was thinking, man, what are some of the things I wish I would have had growing up? And one was shoes, you know, like I wanted to have Nike shoes and I wanted I remember there was, um, some of my cousins that were older than me. I was probably eight, 9 or 10 somewhere around that age. And they were like. 1314. Right. There were just like 5 or 6 years older than me. And I remember they had vans, those vans, those those Slip-on vans with the checkers red and black, I don't know, I wanted those things so bad when I was a kid and my mom could just never afford them, you know. And I remember looking at them and I was like, man, I want those shoes. And I remember Nike shoes. And I would be like, oh my God, I want Nike's, I, I don't. My very first pair of Nike's were hand-me-down shoes from my cousin that lived in Miami at that time. I have a cousin where six months apart and he lives in Miami. He's a doctor now, and I remember he came over to visit us one time and he brought some shoes, some Nike shoes with him. And then I was like, man, those are nice shoes. And my cousin, he's he's he's amazing. He was like, you know, you like him, you can have him. And I remember he gave me his Nike and they were even though they were used, I remember my mom washed them and man, to me they were like brand new, you know, so I, I can always remember that, you know, so shoes for sure. And maybe we have that similarity. Maybe that's why we have so many shoes now. Yeah. Uh, I don't live with myself anymore, which we can talk about that in another podcast, but there's probably, I don't know, a ton of shoes in this house. And the second thing I remember wanting as a kid was a backpack. I didn't have a backpack until I was probably in ninth grade. I don't even know what I think. I must have carried everything in my hands because my. I remember saving for a backpack because my mom could never buy me a backpack. And so ninth grade I when I, I, I, I had gone to the city and I seen a backpack and I said it was a pack backpack. I don't know if they make those anymore. I think they do. And I remember seeing as how I'm going to buy that backpack, it was blue. And I remember I saved and I bought the backpack. So ninth grade is when I first bought my very first backpack, eight, eight or ninth grade. And then the last thing I wish we, I we had back then was a better car. My mom used to have this green Malibu. I think it was like a 76 Malibu and it was like this I don't want to say lime green, but it was it was lime green type of deal. And man, I remember being so embarrassed, you know, driving in that car. But at that time, that's the only thing she could afford, you know? And that's because everyone had nicer cars. But that's the only thing that, looking back, I mean, I'm grateful for it, but I wish we would have had a better car by then. But we actually owned a van, which is why there are so many. Because. Yeah, but you would think it'd be a van with seats for all of us. But it was more like a cargo van, like there was no seats in the middle and the back. The seat in the back was like, almost like a couch that was lay flat. You could lay flat into a bed. And then my parents were right behind, like the driver's seat. They added a sink and they made it like a travel van. Like. Because since we couldn't afford to fly, fly because there were so many of us, we would travel in the van. So my parents would sit up front. Then we would lay out the bed, and obviously none of us had seatbelts, so the four of us would be in the back, like on the bed, and we would travel like that. We would travel to Mexico, visit my grandparents and or the occasional California trip, and my mom would make lunch and everything in that sink. And if they made it into like, a little kitchen right behind the driver's seat, and that's how we would travel. And that was our car for many, many years. And I don't remember any other car, to be honest. But until we got the Ford Escort GT and even like that, there was such a small car, it was only staff four of us. I don't even know why they would buy that car when there. I think by that time that your mom purchased that that escort, I think Henry was already driving, though. I think he had his own car. And your dad, remember? Well, that's the car your mom drove when I met you. And so your dad obviously already had. Your dad had the van and your dad had another truck, and. Yeah, Henry had his own car. And so that's probably why when we purchased the escort, we still lived at Arsenal address, which was the one on Sahara and Eastern. And when I met you, we had we were already living at Gorham. Which is this, the El Dorado by El Dorado High School over there. Right. But when we purchased that escort, I don't think Henry was driving or I don't remember. I remember him going on his skateboard a lot, and I remember he bought, like, a motorcycle, but like a. It wasn't like, how do you say like a like a dirt. Like the dirt motorcycle? Yeah. What do you call those, like dirt bike, dirt bike or whatever. And so he had that. And so we those are the only real cars. And then my dad then got a truck because obviously the whole landscaping thing, he started doing that full time and he left the Jerry's Nugget job. Um, so the, the certain oval address, the one on Sahara and Nellis, we were there, man. Until I was there. Until when I went to third grade all the way up to, like almost seventh grade. And then seventh grade is when we moved to the house over by El Dorado. And we were there for many years. I think I went all the way through high school for sure. We they still lived over there. And that's where you met me in that house over there. Right. But I lived a lot closer to you before. You just didn't know me then. Or actually, you weren't here yet. Well, yeah, by the time I moved here, you were already a go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So you were closer to where I was. Was where? I'm coming to you. That's crazy. Yeah. You know. And and. Well, for me, it was the same apartment, you know, until we moved here. And it was crazy because I remember when I moved here, people would always ask me, where are you from? And I was like, oh, Venezuela. I said, did you move straight from there to here? And I said, yeah. And they're like, oh my God. Like it was a shock, you know, like it is a little bit of a shock. It, it it was, it was definitely a shock. And like I said because we had already came twice and gone back. I never really thought that the third time was going to be the charm forever. Yeah, I just thought that we were just gonna come. And I remember, like, buying things and saving things because I was thinking, okay, I'm gonna take this back when I leave. Right. I was already 15, so I was already aware of a lot of things. Like things, clothes and things like that. And so, um, I remember thinking, I'm taking this back. You know, and then as time went by and a year went by and we're like, I guess we're staying. And that's when, you know, my mom finally made the decision we're staying. And so but, uh, yeah, I always lived in the same apartment. Uh, it was, um, on the on the top floor. There was four. It was. So it was the the bottom floor and then three more floors. So it was a total of, I don't know, you can call that four floors. And we lived on the top one on the corner at the very end. And uh, I had a lot of good friends that there. And we, we used to play outside. I don't think I had many toys. I remember my sister coming back every Christmas or every other Christmas when she would come and she would buy, like us toys, uh, like G.I. Joes that she would probably buy at, like, I don't know, savers or, you know, uh, I don't know if, uh, goodwill was around, but she would bring, like, bags of used toys. And so we would play with those. But I played a lot outside. We played a lot of soccer. We played a lot of basketball. We played baseball. Isn't that crazy about that back then? Is that. Yeah for sure. Outside all the time I was me and my siblings. We were always outside, right? Without a doubt. And I don't ever remember thinking. Because, you know, Vegas, it gets so hot, like over 100 degrees during the summer. Ever complaining about the sun. Know that. And, you know, obviously where I'm from is it's it's the tropical weather. You know, this is the Caribbean. Right? And if you look exactly where my city is located, it's right on the Caribbean Sea. That was actually the ocean that I would see from from my window is the Caribbean. And so it would rain a lot during the summertime, during, you know, July and August. And that never stopped us. You know it. We like we would never go out like the first two rains because they would always say no. That's when, you know, those are the bad rains because it brings all the the stuff down. But every other rain after that we would play outside. It never stopped. So whether it was sports or anything else we were doing, we were just doing it in the rain. You know where that doesn't happen here. And kids obviously then it's a whole different and and I wish. Like for someone like you that's never really lived outside of the US. And yet you're you've travel and you've seen other parts of the country in the world. But to live in a complete different country, it's it's really to live in a complete different world because it's it's completely different. Oh, I imagine like night and day. Yeah. Between the two. Just even the weather alone, it was probably hard for you to get used to the weather here. I never own a jacket until I moved here. Ever. Oh, wow. Ever a sweater. I don't know what that was. No sweater, no jackets? Uh, no, it was just shirt. I don't think I even have a long sleeve shirt, to be honest. It was all short sleeve short shirts and shorts and of course, jeans when you would go to school. But I never owned a jacket until I moved here because there was no need. Oh, well, that's insane. We had no AC. We had a ceiling fan. Well, actually, you know, it wasn't even a ceiling fan. It was those fans that my mom did have ceiling fans in the living room. But in our room, it was just those stand. Oh, those stand, the oscillating fans or whatever you call them. Yeah, that's what we had. But majority of the time I would just open the window. So. Oh yeah. No, that's complete opposite here. Yeah. No no AC. We had no water heater. No water heater. No we didn't have hot water because you don't need you don't need. Yeah. There was no point of hot water. The humidity and the heat. Right. Um, you know, there was no need for you to take a shower with hot water. I didn't I didn't know what hot water was until I moved to the United States. Yeah. Well, I did not know that fact. Yeah. I mean, when there was water, we had cold water because there was times where there would be no water again. It's like a mini Cuba, right? There's times where, like, there's no water, there's no power, there's no gas. You know that we went sometimes days without water or power or gas. You know, I mean, it it was crazy. But that's there's a third world country that's probably a fifth world country. Now with all this stuff going on there. Yes, it's a little sad, but it was a complete different world. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, looking back and we had this conversation, right. Looking back, I think I, I had an awesome childhood. You know, there's nothing that I can look back and say, man, I of course, with, you know, the minor things with the shoes and wish we had a better car, but it was awesome. I had yeah, I had a great time as a child. I, I still have many great memories with family and friends and obviously with my mom, even though we I never really traveled other than going to my brother's farms and, um, you know, spending the weekend there with the horses and the cattle and all this stuff. Um, but it was amazing. I, I, I cannot look back, thankfully and gratefully and and I cannot say, man, I had a traumatic childhood because it was awesome. I think I was. I mean, if you ask me, it was almost nearly perfect. Yeah. You know, even though I, we, I it were so many of us, you know, between me and my siblings, it was great growing up with them. I mean, I can't imagine growing up without them. And even though we would have our little fights and stuff, it was so great to have siblings growing up. And I never thought the same thing. Like I never thought, oh, we're poor. Like what with me? I didn't know any better. That's just the way I was growing up. It wasn't until obviously you get older, you realize, oh, wow, there was a lot of things that. Right. Yeah. No, I could have, definitely. But, yeah, no. Looking back, after you start growing your awareness and you start seeing how other people live. Yeah, exactly. And the things they did and what they experienced and what they had that you can look back and you can say, I had none of that. Yeah. Zero. And and back then we thought we had it all. Yeah I loved it. We would play outside. I made so many friends that were neighbors. You know, your neighbors, kids, you you would spend I would spend all my time with them. And I absolutely loved it. I never once. I can say I could never complain about any of that. I loved, I loved growing up. Yeah. And even even, um, one thing I want to add, I remember going through first through third grade in a certain school, that's the one that I would walk to. And then from fourth grade, all the way down to ninth grade, I went to, uh, private Catholic school. So private school over there is different than at least that one. That particular one, because it was a Catholic school. It was different than what it is here, because here you have to, in a sense, uh, just, you know, if you have the means to pay for it, you can do it. But the way it worked over there is you had you had to have good grades, and your tuition was based on the income of the parent. As long as the child had good grades and the, you know, the parent could pay at least the tuition based on their income. That I was good. And so that's that's how my mom got me into private Catholic school. And it was boys only from fourth grade to ninth grade. That's where I went. Well, I definitely was public school. Yeah. Here is obviously like, you know, very different. But it was public school I loved it I mean. I would get bullied a lot, and I know we've talked about that before, how you kind of appreciate the bully that you got or I don't know if you got it or you were the one dishing it, but I was definitely bullied a lot in school. And it was I mean, obviously I didn't like it. It was bad. I'd always have to hang out with the teacher because I was afraid of getting beat up and stuff like that. I don't know why so many people wanted to bully me, but they did. So I grew up kind of in school being bullied. Did that make you stronger though, or. No, I kind of get it. It has an effect on you. On the negative side, I don't know if it made me stronger and I don't know if it made me weaker. It definitely made me be an extremely nice person, if that makes sense. Like there's others towards others, I, I have, I, I just can't be mean if anyone knows me. It's very rare. You have to push my buttons a lot to get me to really dislike you, because I just not like I, I, I since I was bullied, I had I my in my mind I'm like I'll never be that person right. And so I'm an extremely like nice person and I think that's what happened. Instead of it making me a better person or like not liking people because I was bullied so much, it made me become an extremely nice person. Yeah. Uh, I know we have different points of view on this. Um, and I know maybe some people are not going to agree with me, but I think bullying is it's just part of life, you know, it it it's been around for. Years. And it's going to unfortunately continue to be around and going to an all boys school. There was bullying. I mean, that's really the majority of the time. That's all there was. But you took it when they ditched it when they when they dished it to you and then you dished it back when it was your. I just wonder if it's because you're a boy and that and I'm a girl. Maybe that it might be. That's. How can we see it differently? Yeah, maybe because I'm telling you right now, it made me a stronger person. I appreciate the fact that there was bullying around when I went to school, because it made you a better person to me. It made me stronger and made me realize that, hey, you know what? I gotta defend myself. I can't just take it. I think if you just sit there and take it right as and I don't, I don't want to associate that with the sign of weakness. But if you're constantly let other people bully you without you standing up for yourself, then you're going to grow up in life just basically taking it the exact same way. And that again, this is my point of view. And so I kind of appreciate the fact that that was around and obviously became a bigger issue over the last, I don't know, maybe ten years here in the US and how it has affected a lot of kids. I don't condone it. I wish there wasn't. But it's just something that is hard to stop because every child grows up in a different household. You know, our kids never did it right because they came from a different household, but they might have gotten it right. You never did it because your household, your growing up was completely different than other kids growing up. And so that's why I feel that you have to, in a sense, in, in your life, at one point, you're going to have to go through it and you're going to have to learn with it, learn to live with it, and you're going to have to learn to deal with it in a positive way, where you can have the best outcome coming from it, where it will make you either a better person or it will make you stronger. Correct. So again, I'm not I'm not condoning bullying, but I'm glad I went through it. And I'm also aware that it's something that will continue to happen because it's. To me, it's nearly almost impossible to read. It is, especially now with social media. I feel like a lot of people like to hide behind fake profiles and bully other people. And, you know, it's it's actually really. We just got it the other day. Yes we did. Uh, it's actually really sad. I think it's only definitely gotten worse. Yeah. But again, we we went through it and back then it wasn't a big deal as it is now. No, I mean I was I like I said, I would just hang out with the teacher because the teacher knew that I was having a hard time with some girls and, you know, and that was a lot a part of my life. I don't know. People just wanted to bully me and I didn't. Oh, made you a better person? It did. Yeah. See? So you got the best out of it? I did, yeah. I mean, if you wouldn't have gone through it, maybe you wouldn't think the way you think right now. As far as. Yeah, as far as, um, being able to not do it to other people because you wouldn't have had known any better. You know, I think there's a lot of stuff that happens to all of us in life that we don't like, but you got to look at it for what it is and you got to say, okay, how can I make this a better situation moving forward? And look at the positive side. You know, unfortunately there is. Like I said, everybody's different. And I remember I had, like a birthday party and I would invite from, like, the most nerdiest little girls. I would get bullied on to my party to like, that was your crew. Well, that that's the funny part. Let me explain, because I actually got along with a lot of the popular girls as well, you know. And so I would invite, I remember, I would invite from, like, the most popular girls all the way down to like, the most nerdiest girls that no one really wanted to hang out with. And I remember when I invited all of them to my birthday party, the more popular girls were like, why did you invite so-and-so? And I was like, yeah, like, you're part of our crew, not that crew. I'd be like, because why not? You know, like she deserves to, you know, have friends and go out just like you do. Like I stood up for the the fact that they didn't want me to invite the most nerdiest girls. But why not? Like, if she wants to come, she could more than hang out with us. Like I have no problem. You could sit with us, as I say. That's funny, because I carried out, like, carried on all the way through. Now with you. Yeah. So that's that's just the way I am now. Yeah. Awesome. I think we covered a lot today. Yeah. In regards to a little bit about before we met. And then everybody. I mean, if you were to look back, then you saw when we first when I first moved here and our high school years and when I met you did I was already in the I think you did. I had already finished. Yeah. I think you were out. Oh, okay. I was like you were already one. No. Yes. Yeah. There was groups back then that had, you know, editors, which is coming back now thanks to TikTok. But I was definitely one of those girls that was thrown in the air and. Uh, danced in, uh, Cinco de Mayo like festivals at Freedom Park. Oh, at the park, at Freedom Park. Because back then, I don't think that exists anymore. Huh. Like the Freedom Party, I think Cinco de Mayo. Oh, party. I honestly had Cinco de Mayo or like in, you know, Mexican Independence Day. You know how they would have. Right? All those things I was I was definitely one of the show, one of the shows there. Fun fact, fun fact about Susie. She was a Quebrada girl. Pursue. Man, I wonder if I could if you could throw me in the air like that. Are you gonna have to increase the weight at the gym for that to happen? Yeah, I'm a lot bigger now than. Yeah. You know, you gotta remember I'm on Natty. Well, this was great. This was great. And I hope everyone that's listening gets something out of it. Right. And then we got more exciting episodes. We got some great topics we're going to cover. And we talked about special guests. Special guests. So more to cover, more to come. Last thing you want to say. Don't be a bully. That's true. Don't be a bully. Actually, just be kind. How about that? Be kind. Rewind. Be kind. Be kind to people. Because you never know what. Yeah, 100%. 100%. So. All right. All right, you guys, next time. Guys. Love you. Love you guys. Bye bye. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Unfiltered Us. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. We'd love to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment and join in the conversation. If you think someone else will enjoy today's chat, go ahead and share this episode with them. Your support means the world to us. Until next time, stay real and stay unfiltered.