Hi, my name is Roque.
I'm an only child and my only close family are my dad who came from Peru and my mom who had no other family other than her mom, grandmother, and two older siblings. My mom's family moved from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn before she was born. I never met my mom's mother or grandmother. They died before I was born and even before my mom met my dad. My dad met my mom at an SDA reform church in the Bronx and they got married at an Adventist church in Jackson Heights, Queens. After my parents got married, they moved to Maine because my mom's brother lived there, but they didn't stay in Maine for very long. While my mom was pregnant, her psychiatrist suggested that moving to a warmer state would be better for her.
My parents moved to Miami, Florida, and that's where I was born. But 2 years later, they ended up moving back to New York. I went to a preschool for special needs in Flushing, Queens. Then I went to this elementary school in the Bronx from first grade to sixth grade. I didn't get out much. I spent much of my free time watching cartoons on PBS. When I was about 11 or 12, my aunt gave me Pokémon Yellow and I was instantly obsessed with it. When I was in middle school, my parents and I lived in an Atlanta suburb for a year and a half. A pastor at a church we attended offered to baptize me. I said okay, even though I didn't quite understand the point of it. My parents also got rebaptized.
While in the middle of 8th grade, my parents and I moved to Pennsylvania. I went to high school here until 11th grade. I had no interest in dating. All I cared about was watching TV and playing Pokémon ROMs. During the summer after 11th grade, my parents and I lived in New Jersey. We had cable TV and I enjoyed watching Nickelodeon cartoons. But after experiencing a burglary, we moved away to East Elmhurst, Queens. I graduated from high school in 2006 and then went to a community college using financial aid. During that time, I was obsessed with the NBC show called Heroes. I also tried inducing Lucid Dreams with binaural beats, but it kind of creeped me out.
My parents and I moved back to PA in 2008 because the rent was cheaper. I had to start college all over again because the major I was studying wasn't available. I ended up taking student loans because my Pell Grant money ran out. In 2014, my mom passed away and I finished my liberal arts degree, still owing about $2,000 in tuition debt. I got my first job working for 8 months at a school district to pay it off. Struggling to keep a job. I was obsessed with Minecraft and watching a lot of YouTube because there was no TV signal unless you have cable. I still lived in my dad's apartment and really had no interest in going out anywhere.
In 2016, I noticed that successful YouTubers had friends and that I had no social life. Then something I read in the prayer chapter of Steps to Christ convinced me that my social isolation and lack of a prayer life were somehow connected. So then I got involved in my local church as a bulletin secretary and I also helped with the audio and visual booth. As I began struggling with social anxiety issues, that's when I began to notice the relevance of having a prayer life. At home, I started editing Christian hymn videos with lyrics and uploading them to YouTube. I also archived many Christian hymns into playlist and I had a blog where I'd archive things I learned from sermons or Christian books.
During the pandemic, I began streaming for my church. Then I made some Adventist friends online and we started a Discord server called One Accord the Guild. My past Minecraft experience became useful in illustrating Bible stories. In 2021, while seeing a psychotherapist, I was referred to a job coach that helped me to finally get a permanent job as a waiter at a retirement community.
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