A Snapshot into the Core of Joe Sarmiento

A few weeks ago, I heard a talk where somebody made the point that passion originates from

suffering. He said many of our passions come directly from our suffering and used Jesus’ example (suffering on the cross because he was so passionate about saving humanity) to illustrate that point. Essentially, what we develop our passions because of our sufferings. It’s a really good point actually. Upon reflection, I found most of the things I’m passionate about are because I’ve suffered one way or another. I could write a whole series of blog posts about this, but I’ll see in due time if that happens.

My mind likes to wander a lot; there is always something on my mind. One particular day on a jog, I was starting to think about this notion again. I felt like I was onto something and had one of those retrospective thoughts. It regards something that is at my core and makes me who I am today. As far as I know, I’ve only shared about this once: when I led Kairos 92 at Bellarmine as a senior, 4 years ago. Not that I can read minds, but I’m sure many people have probably asked themselves one version of this question, “How is Joe so full of energy and full of life?” I bet I've been asked that question myself. With that in mind, I’m here to answer that question. And maybe, just maybe you’ll understand me a little bit better than you did before reading.

When I was in 7^th grade, I had a big problem personality-wise: I had a really short temper. I was really easy to make fun of because people knew I would get frustrated quickly. I’ve always been sensitive but at this stage in my life, my buttons were easily pushed. I would yell, scream, and be out of control. I was hurt and would quickly take it out on people. Even as a 7^th grader, I was really outspoken about certain things. Most notably, I loved Cal football and absolutely despised Stanford. That’s still true today but I trumpeted that much more in middle school.

This anger issue came to a head one day in Mrs. Richter’s pre-algebra class. We had some extra time at the end of class. I don’t remember how this happened, but some people, including one of my middle school friends, decided to write on the whiteboard some version of “Go Stanford! Boo Cal!” I…was…livid. Filled with anger, I walked up to that friend and proceeded to twist his wrist tightly to seize that whiteboard marker out of his hand. Well, Mrs. Richter noticed my fit of anger and I proceeded to get called out. That wasn’t the end of it; I got a misconduct slip for my actions. Upon receiving that little red slip, my heart dropped and I realized, “Oh no…my parents are going to know about this.” A little while after this, Mrs. Richter and my parents had a talk (with me in the room) explaining my short temper was a huge issue. I don’t remember what we talked about that day after school but at least my parents knew about my problem.

Before 8^th grade started, I made a promise to myself. Whenever people would try to get me angry, I would smile at them. I would smile at people and at everything in general instead of letting my anger get the best of me. Slowly but surely, times I would get angry would be replaced by times where I’d smile and laugh things off. Thankfully, I reached the point where my anger became a non-issue; I’m all the better for it.

When I think about and reflect upon this experience, I realize I’m still living out this promise today. This takes many different forms: joking around, sharing smiles with people around me, being with people and enjoying their presence, and many more ways. This experience is more deep-rooted within me than I realize sometimes. It's something that makes me...me.

I’d like to conclude by answering the question I posed early in this blog post: “How is Joe Sarmiento full of energy and full of life?” Here is my answer:

I suffered in the past because I would allow myself to become angry and be wary of people. Because of this suffering, I took it upon myself to live life in a different way as a result. I committed myself to live a life full of smiles instead of anger. This is why I have such an energetic and full-of-life personality.