Roman

July 12, 2017  •  Leave a Comment

Meet Roman.

I tried my best to stay subjective while featuring my husband on the blog this month. 

We stopped at his work before heading to Ann Arbor, Mi. for our quick anniversary

get-away so he could show me around his workplace and more of what he does. We later covered things

like moving up to Ohio from Texas, "going hard", and becoming a father & husband at 19.

"The Southmost":

"Growing up in Brownsville, I felt I had a very ethnic upbringing.  

I was surrounded by Mexican stores, Mexican people, Mexican food,

and by the Mexican language of the people. I really enjoyed living there. There was always things to get into -bad things. 

There was a park called 'Gonzales Park' and they would call it 'G park'. 

-- people would call themselves Sureños and what not.

When I moved to Ohio it was a very big culture shock. As a teenager, I was use to running around in the streets

doing whatever I wanted, but then moving to the country everything was slower.

I had no idea what a 'bonfire' was.

I thought it was actually a 'bomb fire', he laughs. I didn't understand the concept.

 Also, going to school the first thing I noticed was that they didn't have metal detectors.

In brownsville, everyone walked through them each day and if it beeped a

bunch of times it meant someone had guns, knives, or things that they were not suppose to have.

So when I got here, I was scared because I felt I didn't have structure.. or.. security.

I remember in about 6th or 7th grade there were kids snorting coke on one of the desks 

where you hold your pencils and we didn't think anything of it.

We just thought it was funny or cool. Now looking back, its kind of strange for kids that age to be

doing that kind of thing and know what it is; you don't see that around here." 

I asked Roman what he liked about Ohio and in his words he says: 

"I really felt Ohio saved me because out here every things slow;

people are really nice.. I found God in my teenage years. 

If I would have stayed in Texas, I really feel like I would've been dead or in jail.

I wouldn't have graduated.

I wasn't in a gang yet or anything, but I was associated with people who were in gangs, 

and it was all around and it was easier to lean towards that stuff. 

 I felt like I didn't have my older brothers around because they were way older, 

and being apart of a gang gives you a sense of brotherhood or family ."

I asked what he didn't like about Ohio and he says:

"Not as much of the culture.  It's slowly getting better, there's more latin stores and more latinos moving here to the country,

but that's mainly because they are picking tomatoes or working in the fields.

I miss constantly being surrounded by the culture. When you were young

every Saturday we had 'The 77' or the 'Setenta Siente', the flea markets or 'The Pulga's'. 

We would all go hang out. They would pawn stuff, sell horchata, tortas, carne asada tacos,

and all of the stuff you can't get up here.

Unless you go somewhere like Chicago, where even there it's not as authentic

being right there by the border where it's not all watered down..

it seems like when you are up here the seasonings die out."

Go hard or go home:

"My work ethic is basically go hard or go home. I go ham on everything.

I go hard because I am not really working hard for a company, or working hard for myself,

but I work hard because God said we are going to work by the sweat of our brow. 

It say's it in the bible. (Genesis 3:19)

So everything I do, I try to go hard for God, and it just so happens

that the company I work for prospers from that.

Basically all my life, I've loved to work. My Dad brought me up teaching me to work.

He said you got to work no matter what. My Dad was an alcoholic for a little while and he would still make it in to work. 

You can do your dirt, have your skeletons in your closet, whatever, but make sure you're at work on time

because the company depends on that, and you depend on your paycheck.

With my Dad since I was a little kid, we would paint barns, tear apart roofs, relay the lining and redo the roofs.

My favorite part was tearing the pieces off the roof, which I thought was fun for some reason.

 I would get a shovel and knock down all the shingles off the roof. 

Then when I got older I would sell newspapers. Each newspaper I would sell, I would get 25 cents, and of course

living in Brownsville it was like 110 degrees outside. We would go in the mornings

-they would give each kid a newspaper and assign a spot and then drop us off in a van.

We would be there all day from about 8am-6pm and one day I made almost $200 and to a kid, that's a lot.

It was a boss job. Not only that but you would get perks. People would drop off tips, drinks, sunscreen, ect.

Of course when I got older I needed something more stable."

He started off after high school working at a chicken factory in South Carolina

 "hanging chickens", then he worked temporary hard labor through temp agencies.

Later , he got out of hard labor for some time and worked monitoring at a drug and alcohol rehab,

then moving to a bilingual case worker job.He had to go back to an old factory for a short time after.

Lastly, he landed an entry-level job at a private airport fueling planes and tending to pilots. 

Hard work at that job led him to landing a career job as a 'NDT level 2' and painter for turbine plane engines and helicopters.

Working out:

"I was pushing 200 and now I'm a steady 165.

(I don't really pay too much attention to weight working out because it can be confusing.

You can be gaining muscle, but it IS cool to see that progress.)"

I asked him what had got him started:

"The fact that I was in Toledo and I just got done eating a Chipotle burrito and I felt like crap.

I felt like I was gonna die because I was over weight, and I just did not like life at that point. 

I couldn't even play with my kids at the park because I just wanted to lay around like a slob.

Since that day, I think I remember telling you,

'I feel horrible and I think I should do something about this and I didn't want to be that forty-year-old Dad

that can't do anything.' I wanted to keep my body up, do things, and change the world with whatever little thing I could do.

I didn't start off big.. I started off with little twenty pound weights from my buddy Mike,

and that just took it off. Now I have two forty pound weights from my buddy, Ivan,

and I just slowly stepped it up. Now I use those; also I got a weight bench.

Lately, I have been working out harder and harder, just to see where I can get.

 I want to be fit and live till I'm 120 -I think is what I told God. I don't know why.

I want to be healthy, conscious, and also not in a vegetative state then,

-because I want to have an input in society and help people out-, it's not just about me.

If I can keep my body up, keep it running and chugging, up to my 90's and 100's,

who knows what I can do to help the world and make an impact? I write music now, but maybe later

I can help mentor youth and raise them up to be better people. That is what I have always wanted to do."

Roman works out every day of the week at 5:45 AM since April 2016.

I can't recall him missing a day except when he was really sick,

which he would make up later in the day or on that Saturday.

   

Man up:

We talked about his perspective on becoming a father and husband at the age of 19.

"It was overwhelming, but I knew I had a responsibility. At the end of the day, regardless of the choices you make, 

being young you have to make do for your family. Family is everything and my kids mean everything to me;

I'll do anything for them. You have to be there, be responsible, don't get so caught up with yourself,

be humble enough to say 'I am responsible for a child now'. I am responsible for another human being whether its money,

providing food to put on the table, finding new ways for them to grow and succeed.. you know.

Being a husband is a whole other realm. It's an awesome thing to be able to be a Man for a Woman, and be able to try to

be there for her as much as you can through the bad times and good times. Also, trying to find new ways to love someone deeper,

which always goes back to God. That fairy tale doesn't really exist. I've always believed in:

love God, love your wife, love your family, love others.

He gives you the strength."

Here he showed me a plane part that he painted. 

Then he showed me some of the different techniques he uses to check engines for cracks and other flaws.

xOxO


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