Martin Segovia Story - Paying It Forward

Martin Segovia: I was the first person in my family, out of all my brothers and sisters and my parents, to graduate from high school, let alone take the next step and go on to college. It was not just exciting but I think they were, they were just very proud of me. When I got on campus at college you know it was, it was kind of the same thing it was a little bit of a culture shock for me. I arrived on campus and there were only seven Latinos on the whole campus at the time, so you talk about sticking out like a sore thumb I definitely did, you know. And I was different because I came from a culture of eating you know papas and tortillas and things like that for breakfast and going there, it was just totally opposite. So, fortunately I had met a great buddy, still one of my best friends today, David Cuttino, who's a coach and  just he was there. He'd already spent a year there so he had already experienced a lot of it. He helped me adapt in a sense to what I was getting ready to step into.

Several times. I wanted to come home and give up, you know it was, it was tough at times. I missed home, I missed my parents you know, and my family. I can recall packing at night and my buddy David told me, you're not going anywhere, he wouldn't let me leave. You know things like that. So it was definitely a journey, you know, well worth. Dr. Zeller was another big influence in my life and I remember being there at the university, it was about my sophomore year, you know, and it's tough. My parents didn't contribute a whole lot financially to my, my college education they didn't have to. I didn't break the record on the ACT but when I got to university I started doing well academically and athletically so I was receiving a pretty good, pretty good compensation there for books, tuition and all that for attending the university.

But the day-to-day grind of just finding food, and you know and getting fuel, and all those things that was tough. I remember one time coming home checking the mail and I get a letter from Dr. Zeller about how proud he was of me and just to keep, you know pushing forward and doing the best I could. That he would he would be here for anything I needed, he would be there and he includes a check for $100 and says go have dinner on me somewhere. You know he would do those types of things for for me and I don't know why but I guess he just felt like paying it forward. He would tell me that, pay it forward. Another good example, that summer I came home for summer break and I got into a car accident. I wrecked my car and totaled my car. Well it was time to go back to school and I was waiting for my best friend David to come in and pick me up on his way from Amarillo to head to school and Dr. Zeller calls me and says, I see you got into a car wreck, so yeah, I did because I want you to go down to Western Motor and I want you to pick out a vehicle. I didn't expect anything from anyone or anything and he said, no I mean it, I want you to go down there and pick out a car, you can pay me later. So he sends me to Western Motor, he had already talked to the dealership and things and allowed me to pick out a car and he paid for it and then the very next summer I came back with the intention obviously of starting to pay him back. I spent about oh, four or five weeks going to see him. About the fifth time I go to his house, he says why do you keep coming over and giving me money, I said well, I have to, I have to, repay this debt I owe you. You know, he says well, you can stop paying me now because what you will do in your future is you will pay more kids about ten times the value of this vehicle than you ever will by paying me back, so stop paying me now. In this profession daily you're giving back, you're you're always looking for the next myself, you know I'm always looking for the next Martin and there's a lot of them out there, so I wish there were more of me to go around because I enjoy doing what we do but I keep that in the back of my mind all the time - I owe, I owe, I owe.