First Trip Abroad - L.A.

I couldn't believe I was actually going to go to the USA!!

When I was 18 years old, I used to "play" basketball in a team at the sports club where our family had a membership... (El Asturiano).
This sports club was just a few blocks away from my home where I grew up and, though it was quite close, it always seemed too far to walk to. (I'd sometimes hitch a ride there!)
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I practised several sports while I was there, football (soccer), swimming, tennis, squash and finally basketball and volleyball...
I was never great at any, but I was always sure I had fun and did my best.

In my early teens, I was quite short and tiny and in my basketball team (Covadonga) they used to call me "the flea" as I was the tiniest.
My team coach would normally keep me in the bench up until the last few minutes of the game and then he would allow me to jump in and play a bit... all those few minutes were always exhilarating and made me feel part of the team.
I never missed training and was always on time, I guess I learned about punctuality there, as my coach was fairly strict.

Then, when I was eighteen, I started growing, things started to change and my interest in the sport started to grow.
I was an absolute L.A. LAKERS fan, and so was my coach, we even copied their uniforms and used their trade colours!
One day my coach said... "We're organising a trip to the USA and a preliminary game at the L.A. Lakers Forum in L.A.... who would like to come?
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WHAT!?
Me! I said...together with other teammates.
Then he said... "Cool, the trip will also include a visit to Disneyland and Magic Mountain"!
We were ecstatic!! and then he said... "You'll need to pay your own way and you need a visa to the USA"...
Now, that represented a challenge and some sweet-talking to Mum and Dad (my selling skills started developing fast).

After all kinds of tricks, begging and coercing I convinced them it was possible and that I would love them even more!!

The U.S. visa had to be approved, first, and you had to pay for the visa application, whether they approved it or not … my father had to serve as a financial guarantor and demonstrate with Bank documents that he was financially sound, and I almost had to swear that I would return to Mexico and that I would not stay in the United States illegally … it was a great dilemma to get that visa … however, they gave it to me.!

I was on cloud 9 from the moment we boarded the plane, my FIRST TIME going abroad!!
I was so nervous and excited, my teammates as well, but we got there and stayed at the Holiday Inn Airport. The next day we went to the Forum to "Play" against some team, truthfully, we could care less, we were THERE at the LA. Laker's turf!!

We played the preliminary game, and I don't even remember who won, we probably lost, but at the end, we went to the locker room to change and... there walks in THE L.A. LAKERS entire team!!
WHAT?!
They were bearing gifts for all of us, we got T-shirts, basketball boots and most importantly we got to meet them!
I was blown away, especially standing up close and personal next to Kareem Abdul Jabar who was towering above me like a skyscraper!!

OMG!!
What an unbelievable moment in life, that in itself was worth the entire trip, even though Disneyland was great and the terrifying rides at Magic Mountain were unreal, meeting our basketball idols up close and personal was a totally unique experience....and the seed for "more of that" was planted in my heart and in my mind...

It was a great adventure, and I even drove a Van for the first time in Los Angeles to take the team to Magic Mountain, since I was the only one with a driver's license on the team… (I had just turned 18)

My hunger or desire for more travel and adventure was starting to grow and I'm sure I must have said when we left, very appropriately for Los Angeles …
​I'll be back...