Jesse Torres II

What I've been up to since 1989......I was that lost person for a while, the one on the B rated movies you see at 2 am who has the raggedy dog and bad job washing stinky dishes for minimum wage and smokes Winston Selects and drinks a lot. I kept the bad hair for a while too, although it at least upgraded to a respectable mullet around "94. I tried several different schools in the area to finish my graduation requirements (even attended Clover Park High School for a few months - short story...was gambling in choir...departed). Another short story....i was 19, high school failure (academically-GPA) and intensely depressed. My bus boy friend and I pulled our money out of the bank, sold his car and drove my '72 Dodge Charger to Minnesota. We left just to get the hell out, for real, like you see in the really awful movies about gettin' away man from the Man. We really did it! For a while. It didn't take long to realize that the same shitty jobs were waiting for me in Chaska an d Shokopee Minnesota that i could find in good old rainy T-Town. I pretty much discovered the same thing in Texas, so i came home. So what else happened.......?....geeze...forgive me for the free association.....

Found any party I could find - didn't care if it was preppy, rocker, older, younger, drug infested, gay, dangerous with gangsters or cozy with grandma.....worked my way up to 1/2 gallon of gin every 3 days or so...started to loose my hair and weighed a buck thirty five.

Was not shocked by much after a while.

Got sick of feeling and looking like that guy in the depressing movies. Ran into high school friends every now and then.

I ended up at Pierce College.

Then UW-Tacoma.

Some how figured out how to study and earned a BA.

Was every now and then flabbergasted at how high school socialites ended up as drunk as i was and drugged and failing college more than i was.

Somehow I survived the hell that is Marine Corps Officer Candidates School and was granted the honor of leading our nations young Marines (Semper Fi!). My wife and I served four years at Camp Pendleton, California. We were stateside and peace time the whole time, but oh well, they were the Clinton years ('96 to 2000). I can never forget the Quigley, Marine Corps PT, Staff Sergeant Brown, Sergeant Hunter and Lancer Corporal Washy. The Marine Corps is burned into you. I think I was a little scary to my civilian co-workers when I got out. I remember describing to one co-worker a Marines' distinction between a little bit dead and REALLY Dead. I think more Americans understand what I'm talking about now, Bush/Iraq and all. If anyone needs a little more vivid detail check out Nathaniel Fick's One Bulltet Away, The Making of a Marine Corps Officer.

What else in these twenty years? Hurting from my parents divorcing when I was in my early twenties, which made the Marines easier in many ways, but marriage and fatherhood much more difficult.

I'm Catholic and my wife was (until recently) of a different religion. Another long/short story, we're still together and really loving each other (love is a verb). My son's name is Aidan and thankfully he'll never have to determine whether or not a mullet is a good idea. His picture runs across the top of our webpages. My daughter is Cami (Camille) and she's beautiful (she's got a mean jab too). With Karate as a lifestyle and a business i get to see them off to school and home everyday.

We carve out our family and business life in Kent, Washington. We make our way to Tacoma frequently. All of my family is still showered by T-Town rain [Jess, Jane,Karla (Class of '88) and Aundrea......we've always been a violent bunch].

Meeting and training under my Sensei since 1996. Like Charlie Sheen said in Oliver Stone's Platoon, I've felt like a child, born of two fathers. My father, Jess Torres of Tacoma, Washington and Paul Enfield of Oxford, England.

I teach Goju Ryu Karate. My family and I run a traditional dojo. We have a lot of fun and learn a lot.

My only regret in these last 20 years is that I couldn't scoop up all the people I've come to love and take care of them. Success is a mist.

I'm going to need another night to talk about '87 to '89. For me it's more about longing to feel, smell, touch, hear all that was back in the day of Def Leppard, George Michael and Guns and Roses. I was a commuter from the other side of town (South End...I should have gone to Mt. Tahoma). A handful of us from Baker Jr. High made our way across town. I miss Tracy Morris, who I went to St. Anne's with (Catholic School), James Dolan, Rose Charfarous. I remember not giving a damn about staff or faculty or the majority of the student body. I remember working 5 days a week and hard parting on Friday and Saturday nights. I remember and miss drama class/plays. What was her name? Mrs. Tuttle? Like Rick Durham said (hey Rick! It's wonderful to see you're doing well!), drama was also my doorway to a lot of people and parties. Although my best friends were and still are all from across the tracks, i do miss Tim Johnson, Mario Valdez and Richard McKittrick. Where are they? Toby, Jason and Andre were gods! Like most everyone else, there was a hard mix of intense friendships, nudity and a few broken hearts. I was more devastated by love than hate. Hate was and still is easier. Where is Tim and Mario and Richard and Tobie, Jason and Andre? Where is Marie Struchen?

I remember smoking in the parking lot with a bunch of great kids.

I remember destroying a few things with Tim Johnston.