Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesus Manjarrez.
Hi Jesus, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My life has been very eventful since I could remember. When I was young about 4years old my mom decided to get a better life in the dream land USA. Even though it felt like pictures in a dream I can still smell the fresh watered grass early in the morning while cars and trucks pass by in the side of the road while we waited for a ride to take us to the border. We had a very challenging journey ahead of us and thank God we made it tru. I remember crossing the river having spikes stuck to my legs and us walking forward with no end of goal or help. We finally made it to a trailer that it seem like my mom knew one person. After we showered and change they took us to a ranch full of other people. Quickly my mom not knowing how to use money or find a job she decided to start enrolling us in school and look for a job for her to do. Life was tough as we would shower outside with hot water from a make shift fire outside and we would sleep in a small beat down trailer that was about the size of a household restroom with no windows and ac and a bed that had spring poking out. My brother and I had to cover our self’s from getting bitten from mosquitoes but had to endure 95 plus degree weather. Until one night my mom came slamming the door open and grabbed my brother and I and started running away. We were confused but had a lady behind us with a machete chasing us away in the middle of the pitch black night and in a dirt road. We kept on walking until we saw day break. We encountered many other people like that good and bad bust mostly with bad intentions. I even got to live with an artist named Pewee that became famous in Latin music later on. He introduced me to American football. Little do we know after living tru that our life was going to still have bigger challenges. One day when I turned 6years my mom got together with this man named Armando he had 5 other kids and he seemed a little friendly and since my mom was kind hearted she decided to help out raise his kids with him as a family. I don’t know about relationships at that moment so I just went with the flow before we need it my brother and I had a room there at his house. We don’t know what we where getting our self’s into ,after started living with them everyday. It was like a living hell my brother and I weren’t fighters but being in that family we where soon bullied pushed around nearly stab and lost our lives many times. Even tho most memories where nothing but survival and anger I did learn how to overcome any challenging person in my way and not loose control easily over words. And had a few good memories. It got to the point that we had to run away for our lives. When I turned 14 years we had lost everything we worked for because of my step dad anger and hate towards us. We had to get food from behind the Walmart trash just to get nutrition and slept in the streets again and started from zero. I could only imagine what was going tru my moms mind not knowing what to do next. Thankfully there was a program called women united that took us in and gave us help. It was like a big house with four families we all had a curfew even the adults. There was timings for breakfast lunch and dinner and playtime. Everything was strict but we where living well and relax for the first time in our lives. I was always a well rounded student in school because that’s where I would learn, eat and, have friends. That would be my escape from my life but when we moved all that felt grey and dull . I didn’t want to be there at all. We had that fear our whole life’s of getting deported but with the program that we where at they helped us get our papers by a program called BAWA. Everything was happening fast and was so confusing but one thing I knew is that we had each others back on everything. One day while looking tru our few things we had, I had asked my mom why we carry a big blue baggage that we don’t use and it’s heavy. My mom with a straight face said you are getting older and we need to be clear with each other always. Then she continued to say this luggage is full of police reports medical reports and other reports about the abuse that we all lived tru so we can give it to the government and they will give us asylum and fix our papers. I remember having to go to meetings with random strangers that where properly dressed. They asked us so many personal questions in different occasions. Eventually we got to a point where they moved us to our first real home with the same program for a fraction of the cost of rent. My life seemed to get better but in my head and my families we where all fighting a demon that takes a lot of life’s which is depression. My mom got prescribed different medications that would make her numb to the world and her surroundings while my brother and I would sneak out a cope with these feelings by introducing ourselves with the wrong crowed and doing substances that where illegal do Adult let alone teenagers. We had no care in the world because we had live so much at that point most things won’t affect us. Even tho I started to get side tracked when I started high school I joined this program called MCJROTC which gave me motivation that I was missing for a while again. I started to participate in school activities and getting back into how I use to like school and it went pretty smooth and I enjoyed my high school years as much as I could even though I never had new clothes or new shoes I stood proud of who I am because of the things I lived that no one could take away. I would never feel ashamed even if people try to bully me and that’s why I always had friends growing up wanting to be around me because I knew no shame or felt sad for someone else comments or doings. I considered my self strong minded and physically but one thing did scare me and that was the big question every senior gets asked. What is the plan after graduation. When I turned 18 I wanted to go to college but that wasn’t an option because I didn’t have support financially or scholarships that would help me ride tru without having to ask for loans and get into debt. I was going to go to the marines because I didn’t 4yrs of MCJROTC marine core junior reserve officer course. When I went my mom wanted me no to go because I was one of her two sons. I decided not to go so our alternative was let’s go up north work a seasonal job and get unemployment and get paid and re do again like most families do. We have always stuck together so that’s what we did and in 2016 we moved to Minnesota. I felt lost but eager to make money since my whole live I’ve had know nothing but poor life. So I started working hard 12hrs shift for 4months straight and learned everything I could about that job. I quickly learned my job and applied for a new higher paying job. I was so eager to move up that in the 6 years that I was with the company I moved from sanitation job, to forklift operator, to machine operator, to production line manager, to Ammonia refrigeration mechanic. And in between those jobs I worked in building house making cheese cakes and polishing floors. Money really wasn’t an issue my brother and I bought our own cars and bought a trailer home for my mom. We each had our own place as well. Life was good and happy I was getting so much fun experience that I was allowing my self to experience skydiving to boating to skiing and much more. The fun wasn’t stopping and my brother and I felt free for the first time in our lives and we can accomplish anything. I had a good paying job I thought I was going to retire from I even went to schooling because my company I worked for paid for it and even came out top three of my class which I competed with people that had 20 plus years in the field. Where I had less than a year of experience. Then some really horrible news hit for our family. One morning I was coming out of work and my brother called me while he was coming in since he was day shift and I was night shift. I remember feeling tired from a long 12hr shift and my brothers voice a little scratchy and concerning saying brother can you take me to the hospital I can’t breath right. My adrenaline rose up I jumped up and drove straight to pick him up then I took him to the hospital and since it was peak Covid I couldn’t be there with him. Many hours passed and I was waiting there in the parking lot scared and expecting the worse. He finally came out the next day but my mom and I took turns to wait because we had a job to do as well. When we finally heard the news it was like anchors where dropped down our throat and our heart sank. They diagnosed my brother with cancer and to make it worse blood cancer. I didn’t want to believe it I couldn’t accept the fact everything started to feel like a dream. The only thing that was left for us to do was go tru the chemotherapy. Now my brother at that point he wasn’t a drinker or a smoker but due to the chemo his liver was affected so bad they tough he was an everyday drinker. It was so hard for me because I was denied any contact with him while in treatment because Covid so my mom had to move 45 minutes away to be next to the hospital. While I was thriving in my job but at the same time my world was collapsing. I had to financially support my mom,brother and all my expenses as a 22 year old young man it was so much responsibility when you see rents of $1200 easily and above and all the other expenses I said let’s do everything we can do for my brother. A full year pass of him going tru chemo to try and clear out his leukemia and when it was close to clearing out his body seem like a whole different person but he was a very tough warrior that wouldn’t give up. Then we where told that by donating bone marrow he would have a fighting chance to clear it out now and have many years to live. I signed up first no questions asked even though many doctors asked if I was doing this willingly or voluntarily many times. We went tru the process and my brother was recovering in this home for three months once it had passed then his body with the new bone marrow would fight off the small percentage of cancer. It was going really smoothly until the last month all of a sudden his body started to reject the bone marrow and the cancer spread again at that time I was able to visit as much as I could because I still had work. But once that happened the only solution was to re peat the process which at the middle of the chemos my brother was not able to eat any solids and liquids he would puke everything out it was very hard to see and i could never imagine how it felt. He decided if God intended to take me now than I must accept faith and went home with us to live his final moments together. It was the darkest time in my life that every second I had I stood there with my brother next to him and played video games. Until his final breaths I was there I didn’t know how to cope with this feeling once he left this world. My body felt numb and cold. My heart felt empty and sad I lost my right hand person for a moment I didn’t want to live any more and felt like everything was lost. I quit my job because I dint want to be responsible for many people’s death as working with Ammonia it is very dangerous specially if your distracted or if you don’t know the job. I got in my car and drove thousands of miles around 5different states to find a new living situation and start new. Out of many places I visited and applied I really liked this area called woodlands,tx but the living cost was wild so I moved to magnolia area. I had savings and moved all my stuff down to Texas and had my mom living with me and my girlfriend. I had so many job opportunities with my resume I wasn’t worried about getting one or getting money as I could live for easily a year without work and had my car payed off. But life was still very hard to live I started to drink more and smoke so much and try to forget everything. I noticed how unhealthy it was getting mentally and physically so I decided to help my mom do her dream of selling tacos. We bought all the professional equipment she got her food handlers and permits and we started to cook and serve people. We would be delivering the tacos and be word of mouth that was my first time doing something in sales. That’s when I met Muhammad and Sakib driving tru Tomball,tx in a shop called BahamaMama vape shop. I never would picture myself to work in a place like that but I enjoyed smoking. So one day we sold him my tacos he loved it so much that he wanted us every weekend there and on one of those weekends I asked him I always see you here do you need any help around. The first thing he told me was have you done retail and then come tomorrow to meet with my partner and give you a proper interview. I was very confident by saying I haven’t done retail but I enjoy talking with people. I told him I don’t know most of your product but if you give me a chance in no time I’ll become an expert in the product. He smiled and said will see you tomorrow. I was very excited because being there even tho I had interviews in stadiums and offices I didn’t want those jobs because it would depress me again by remembering my brother and worry about messing my work. I decided to go to that interview with full passion and ready to work as the risk are way lower in terms of physical work. In my interview I was told a way lower hourly wage as I was use too, which i expected. Also changed to by weekly payment instead of weekly. Definitely tough to get use too but I manage. The only reason why is because meeting them two they showed me a whole different perspective in life with some thing called becoming a business man with proper experience and back to prove it. They said if I applied my self and had a fire inside my heart then I can become a owner of my shop with there guidance. My eyes and mind glow up I couldn’t believe what they where saying but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But I’m a very determined person even in my darkest times I have found something in my life to make and do something of my self because one thing I did promise my brother before he left, i told him I will live life for you to the fullest. I began a new journey in my life that change my world again to the better. In two months I learned all my product knowledge of the store and learned how to do sales and started to learn the back of the business. I keep on learning and moved from sales associate to store manager to area manger and within those four years of sacrifice, hard work and dedication I finally became a shop owner at 28years old and also a father of a beautiful baby girl in Hockley, Tx I partner up with Bahama mama franchise. I hope this inspires anyone to never give up keep your head high and keep going thank you for reading this from Jesus Manjarrez
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely hasn’t been an easy road. I’ve had to endure from hungry nights to bed less nights to having to walk anywhere we needed to go when I was young. When I grew older been able to withstand long hours shift being responsible with your money and learn how to save even if your making very little to none money. I’ve learned to never give up on a goal that you feel impossible to reach and specially to know that there are more nights that you will be confused wether you know where your going or not but keep that positive attitude and look for those opportunities to grow specially from people that has had the experience. Never stop learning
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
In the Smoke shop industry it has been a very grey very shady business to run. When I joined with the mentality that the owner had of having outstanding customer service I started to learn the details when it comes to different canabinoids in the Marijuana plant and how they work different in the body. For example if you have never done cannabis then I can show you a CBD PLUS CBG broad spectrum gummy that has no thc but will help with pain relief better than any regular cbd product. I have different level of knowledge from legal mushrooms like lionsmane, chaga, or, reishi. How kratom can affect bad and good. I always like to listen to my customers so I can recommend the right product and have helped train many BahamaMama shop owners to run their businesses on product knowledge and take care of their customers. I’m most proud of seeing the difference in my customers daily life’s from having cancer and being able to beat it because they have the energy to eat again and to fight it off ,too people sleeping properly for the first time in a long time in there life’s to people being in better moods than they would normally be if they drink alcohol how they use too. I try to be as close as I can with my customers and train any employee too be up to those standards to help as best as we can. We check our COAS and products to try and stay safe for the state rules and regulations. Keep brands that are direct to create healthier options with less sugars and color dyes.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory was when my brother and I would sit down and create small villages with dirt, toy cars, and action figures and create stories and forget all the worries around us for a moment
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Bahamamamahockley
