Steven Martinez:
CLASS OF 1989
Elk Grove High SchoolClass of 1989
Elk grove, CA
Gwinn High SchoolClass of 1989
Gwinn, MI
Steven's Story
Life
(Dec 2006) I live in St. Cloud, MN and love it very much. I moved here in May 1997 to be closer to my family and was very fortunate to transfer with work.
When I moved from Gwinn at the end of our freshman year in 1986 I moved to Elk Grove, CA (a suburb of Sacramento) and, well, hated the remaining 3 years of high school. I admit it, I REALLY loved Gwinn, Sawyer, my friends and never really gave Elk Grove a chance. It wasn't until I graduated that I regreted being out of school and wished I could do it all over again. If I could, I definitely would have done things differently.
I graduated with my new class in 1989 and immediately went into junior college to study computer programming. I got bored real fast though and eventually stopped going.
In 1990 I got hired on at Sears in their credit department and over a couple of years advanced to a credit analyst. This was, and still is, my favorite job - partly for the job itself and mostly for the people I worked with. I never had so much fun as I did then. 3 of my co-workers were actually from my school and one of them was my best friend, the first person I met at school. I still keep in touch with 2 of them. Hard to believe after almost 20 years.
In 1992 Sears closed most of their credit centrals, mine included, and I spent a few months at an in-between job before getting hired on at FedEx in April 1993 in their customer service call center. I met my wife there in January of 1994 and in February 1996 we were married. I can truly say that I was very fortunate to marry my best friend, something I had hoped would happen. We celebrated our 10-year anniversary this year and we can both safely say that we're still best friends. She truly is a blessing in my life. In May 1997 we both transferred with FedEx (me as a driver and her as a package handler) to St Cloud and have been loving it ever since. I'm still a driver and love it - will never do a desk job as long as I can keep my body in shape. My wife has since quit and works at home assembling lanyards.
We have 2 children. Our daughter, Isa, was born July 24th, 1999 and our son, Alanzo, was born March 25, 2006. Yes, we know, that's quite a stretch but trust us, we tried, and eventually had to turn to modern medicine to help.
In 1995, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (yes, you heard right - a Mormon).
My wife, Becky, had been inactive in the church when we met and she eventually started going back so I tagged along and investigated the church, myself. I had never been religious before that point in my life so I have to admit, it was weird but it seemed right. Spirtually, I have never been better and I look forward to teaching my children all that I can. Anyone who has ever heard my conversion story knows how special prayer has become to me and knows how special my wife is to me.
I've been back to Gwinn a few times - once while the base was still open. One of the benefits of having a father who is retired USAf. I was back once during the time the base was closed and deserted - a very weird and very disheartening memory. Some of my best memories are of a very active base neighborhood. And I've been back since the base has been "repopulated", which, again was weird because I remember driving by my old house and seeing cars on all the lawns on my block and even in the back yards - again, a very disheartening image.
Anyone who remembers me, which is probably not a lot (lol), would remember a tall, skinny, dork who didn't dress very up-to-date and couldn't dance. Well, I haven't shrunk but I am still pretty lanky in stature. I am still a dork - I still watch Star Wars after all these years, except now I can watch it in 53 inches and in 5.1 surround sound. I still can't dance and well, probably don't dress very up-to-date, but being an ex-grunger has taught me that it's kinda cool to dress how ya want and not give a ...Expand for more
crap.
School
(Dec 2006) Ah, yes, the school section. Well, what can I say about school? It really was a time of my life that I sometimes want to repeat because it was so fun and I miss it and sometimes want to forget it ever happened because it was so bad.
Without a doubt, my fondest memories are of Gwinn, both Gwinn Middle and Gwinn High. Even though I was at the lower end of the class food-chain and was often a target, I still really missed it when I eventually moved away. It was a small community, a small school and we had a small class. I pretty much knew everyone, even if not personally. I could identify anyone in our class. I had good friends. And overall, it was a good school. Sure, we had our problems but I never felt threatened there. I remember the day that I found out my dad was retiring and NOT taking a job in the UP still. I could honestly say I don't think I ever hated my dad as much as that day.
Elk Grove, on the other hand, was nothing short of a prison. I absolutely hated it there. First, Elk Grove had something like 10 times the number of students in the school and my graduating class was about the same size as the whole of Gwinn High. That means that if I was insignificant at Gwinn I became absolutely invisible at Elk Grove. I'm amazed that the people who knew me there actually knew me. Second, no one at the time was actually interested in getting to know you at all. I remember at Gwinn we'd always try and get to know the new kid - even if he was kind of a dork.
Ok, Ok, I'm probably exaggerating a bit. I'll admit -my big problem is that it wasn't Gwinn and I REALLY missed Gwinn a lot. So much so that I pretty much just went there to finish and move on. I never really did give the school a chance at all. I think things would have turned out differently if I had and if I could go back and re-do it over again I would. At school I kinda became that one guy you see at work, the one who goes in, does his job as quickly as he can and punches out and you never really get to know him at all because he's never around and when he is you don't care. So it's no surprise that on graduation day there were very few handshakes. Remarkably, though, I still keep in touch with the first person I met there back in 86. Wow- 20 years. Amazing.
College
(Dec 2006) Hmmm, college. Well, there's even less to say about college. In short, I went and got bored and stopped going, plain and simple. There's probably a fair amount of laziness in there, too, but that's pretty much the gist of it.
Workplace
(Dec 2006) I've had quite the variety of jobs over the years. When I first moved to Cali, my first job was picking grapes in the vineyards around Bakersfield. I did that during my first summer here and got dark enough to be discrminated against (lol).
I'm currently working at FedEx (Express) now and have been so since April 1993. I started out in customer service, which is literally the suckiest job that this company offers, only because of the hours and the people you have to talk to. In May 1997, I transferred to MN as a delivery driver and I gotta say - I love it.
Now, anyone who remembers me at all would probably say that a job that requires me to A. drive and B. go and talk to people (ALOT) of people every day is about the last job I would do, due to my being so quiet and distant and, well, an extreme intravert. Not that dispute any of that - I do still regard my self as being quiet but ya know, I've actually become a pretty good people person over the years. I've been on the same route since I got here so I know literally everyone on my route.
That's not to say it doesn't have its downsides. Christmas is very long and tiring, the weather extremes here can be challenging to work with and your body does take a lot of abuse over the years. But even with those, I still love it and will do the job as long as my body holds out.
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