Hello, My name is Juan Estrada. I moved with my family to the United States from Mexico when I was 6 yrs old. This is my Story!

Dream Catcher - The Podcast!

Hello, My name is Juan Estrada. I am 34 years old I moved here to the United States when I was 6 yrs old.

Growing up most of my life I was considered illegal in this country. I faced issues with that like not being able to get a drivers license at 16 when everybody else was getting theirs. Hard to explain to my classmates of why I couldn't. After high school I worked as a hired hand on a pig farm did that for 7 years went on to work at a pipe machine shop. I started welding pipes together before moving to the machine shop and learning how to run a manual lathe. While working there I started a family with my lovely lady. When our second was born I made the hard decision to go back to my old job for the earlier afternoons I could be off work around 3 compared to the machine shop at 5:30.

Most nights I'd get home just to tuck in the little ones to bed.

Did another 4 years at the farm during that time we had a third child. I wanted to get out of the farm the work was hurting my body and I would cone home just irritated and miserable. My lady suggested I apply for a bilingual position at Verizon, I said they would never hire me because I lacked the college education. Well she filled out the application and I hit send. Fast forward and I've been with the company for almost 3 years. March 15th will mark the 3 years in that time I've dealt with bell's palsy, a motorcycle accident which I was very lucky to have been able to walk away from. I've also won 3 awards. My first full year I hit the 900 high achievers club, second year I sold the most Verizon Visa cards in the company and also made presidents club the top 10 in my conference get to make it. I'm very blessed to have my family and kids with me work hard to keep a roof over their head and to provide for them. I've been able to support my wife to stay home and take care of our little ones.