What moment quietly changed the direction of your life?
Sometimes life doesnāt change because of one giant decision.
Sometimes it changes because of one sentence.
One person.
One walk.
One class.
One conversation.
Looking backā¦
what moment quietly sent your life in a direction you never expected?
July 30, 2026 ā 8:12 a.m.
Sitting here in my studioā¦
lights offā¦
feet on my ottoman while I type away.
Iām only happy early in the morning.
How I enjoy that brief moment with no noise.
Once Iām out of this momentā¦
every dayā¦
the bubble bursts into noise.
Some good.
Some bad.
Growing upā¦
I didnāt really like paying attention to my surroundingsā¦
or even my thoughts.
I didnāt believe there was a future that I could have.
I felt likeā¦
maybeā¦
life would just work out.
For some peopleā¦
it can.
For meā¦
it didnāt.
Soā¦
letās cry.
Not really.
Wellā¦
I did at first, like many people do.
Then I realizedā¦
you canāt stay there crying.
Firstā¦
it wastes time.
Secondā¦
crying is a feeling.
Not a solution.
Soā¦
what do I do?
I started trying to plan.
Go back to school?
In my thirties?
What the fuckā¦
Wellā¦
my then-girlfriend made that decision for me.
āHey, I registered you to go back to school.
Youāre going to Cerritos College.
Monday, you have to go take the placement tests.
Iāll give you three years to get your life together.ā
Fuck.
At the time I worked valet at a clinic in Beverly Hills.
My view was an alleyā¦
and across from itā¦
another large building.
One day an elderly woman accidentally drove straight into it.
She forgot which pedal was the brakeā¦
and hit the gas instead.
I still remember the nerves of driving to campus.
Hands sweating.
āIām going to fail againā¦
againā¦
again.ā
Thatās what kept replaying in my mind.
I had never been able to pass a class outside of art before.
Soā¦
what was going to change?
I was so afraid of failingā¦
that I thoughtā¦
What if I overprepare?
What if I work so hard that being ābad at schoolā canāt catch me?
So I wrote everything on cue cards.
While parking carsā¦
Iād memorize.
While eatingā¦
Iād memorize.
While walkingā¦
Iād memorize.
While drivingā¦
Iād memorize.
All the time.
Thenā¦
I started getting Aās.
I wasnāt becoming smarter overnight.
I was finding a way.
Thenā¦
the person who inspired me to go back to schoolā¦
left me for someone else.
Depression.
Again.
Soā¦
what does Roberto do now?
Failureā¦
again?
Wellā¦
firstā¦
a psychologist.
And I learned that psychologists arenāt all equal.
Some listen.
Some help.
One changed my life.
She worked at Cal State Long Beach.
She told me,
āSit there.
Imagine yourself at seventeen.
Ask him how he feels.ā
So I did.
Thenā¦
it hit me.
He could only do what he did based on what he knew at the time.
Maybeā¦
I should give him grace.
And maybeā¦
I should simply do my best with what I know now.
Thatās when the long walks began.
Walking became a conversation with my own mind.
Those walksā¦
led me to writing.
I hated writing with a passion.
It felt dull.
Intellectual.
Boring.
Thenā¦
writing became something else.
It became a relationship with ideas.
Thoughts.
Trauma.
Exploration.
A way to see.
A way to feel.
A way to understand myself.
I used to think writing was about putting words on paper.
Nowā¦
I think itās about discovering the things I never knew I was carrying.
Enjoy your cup of coffee.
Question
Looking back, what small moment quietly changed the direction of your life?
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I write about ordinary moments, creativity, coffee, and the quiet discoveries that slowly shape who we become.
ā Enjoy your cup of coffee.
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