Marissa and I met my Sophomore year at SMHS. Since that day, we have shared our entire lives. When I graduated from high school, Marissa was there. Together, we had three kids and adopted another. The day I finished at UT, Marissa and I moved to Atlanta for my job, together. A couple years later, we moved back to San Marcos for good, together. I couldn’t have accomplished half of the things I have accomplished without Marissa’s support, but more than that, her wisdom, her input, her effort, and her help. She is more than my best supporter, we are a package deal and she is a big reason that you should support me for school board.

Marissa’s grandparents came to San Marcos from the valley so that their children and their children’s children could have a better life. Marissa’s grandmother was the second hispanic educator in SMCISD, and that was no minor challenge. Yet she paved the way for future hispanic teachers and thousands of future hispanic students, not by being a hispanic teacher so much as a teacher who happened to be hispanic. And two of her daughters walked that same road a generation later with Marissa’s mom teaching 30 years at Crockett and Travis, and Marissa’s aunt teaching at Hernandez to this day. Just like every lifelong teacher, they touched so many lives in such a personal, sacrificial way, and the support of Marissa’s family in this election keeps me going.

With all that history, Marissa never felt an expectation that she had to do the same, and she has had the freedom to invest the last 16 years in staying at home with our four children. She does the largest share of the lunch packing, the drop-offs, the homework, the celebrating, and the disciplining, and our four wonderful children are the best testament to what a wonderful mom Marissa is. We have different strengths that compliment each other, and she has been content with what appears to the outside as a supporting role for my job and the areas that I have served. But I couldn’t do any of it without her, and I couldn’t do this election or serve on the school board without her.  We are in it together.