>> I remember being at a point in junior college,
where I was stuck, you know, what am I going to do?
I was born into a restaurant,
my dad and grandmother owned a family-run Mexican place in Glendale, where I grew up.
And I was a busser there, well first a dishwasher, then a busser,
then a server when I was like 13, and then I took a break through high school to,
do sports and stuff and focus on my studies.
And then I remember after, like before high school was even over, I missed the action
and the energy of a dining room and got into restaurants before I was at high school and then
when high school was done I was back at it, you know, waiting tables.
And so I was in and out of college in my early 20's, you know, I studied music first.
And then as I approached my 30's, I realized I wanted to get back
into school and like really get a degree.
And I went back and forth, like, you know, do I use my restaurant experience
and see where that takes me or do I like start all over from scratch and go into engineering
or you know, maybe, you know, maybe look into law or something like that.
And I remember a teacher saying, and he wrote in big letters, that from where we were
in junior college to where we want to get we want to focus on getting into management.
You know, and from there, that would be a springboard to go wherever you go from there.
And it just seemed like a long-haul from where, if I was going to start from scratch
and get into something else it was going to be a long road from there to get
to where I could have enough experience and, you know, knowledge to be a manager.
So I had all this restaurant experience so it made sense, to just go into restaurants.