Thank You, Zach (The Zach Effect) The First Autobiography of Daniel Soto

Great Memories

While living in Peru, I was into soccer. I watched soccer with my parents, but it wasn't easy to root for one team because my dad is from Peru and my mom is from Argentina, and they both wanted their team to win. You might think I rooted for Peru, too, since I am from Peru, but I rooted for Brazil. At that time, when I was living in Peru, Brazil had an incredible team because of its' players. This team had Ronaldo (not CR7), Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Robinho, Kaka, Adriano, Dida, Rivaldo, Cafu, Edílson, and many other players. I loved this team so much because all those players played very well. Many nurses in Brazil and my family called me Ronaldo because I had the same haircut as him. I always wanted to be like Ronaldo as a soccer player; I tried to play it in Trujillo in many different ways. I always watched Brazil play and rooted for them despise my parents rooting for other teams. I went to many soccer stadiums in Peru and watched a lot of television every time Brazil played. The love for soccer that I have, I continue having by continuing watching soccer games with my parents here in the US rooting for the same team. We always watch Barcelona play in LaLiga and other tournaments. My love for the Brazil team quickly faded away after those players retired, and I started rooting for Argentina for many reasons. Two of those reasons are rooting with my mother and because of Messi, of course. My love for soccer has expanded now by loving other sports such as basketball, baseball, American football, and ice hockey. I try to watch all of these sports as much as possible, but sometimes it isn't easy because I am always busy, which prevents me from watching all of those sports. My favorite sport is still soccer and will always be. Every time I talk to my paternal grandfather over the phone, we always talk about soccer and basketball, mainly soccer. I would say soccer is part of my culture. I speak to my paternal grandparents every Sunday over the phone as much as we can since I lived in Peru.

In my first few years living in the US, my brother, Sebastian, and his brother, and I registered to play for FFPS (Fun Fair Positive Soccer activity in Houston). In FFPS, they taught us to play soccer, but differently than usually how outdoor soccer is. There were rules in that outdoor activity. Every soccer player made turns to each other during the game all the time. For example, a goalkeeper will take turns with a defender or any other soccer player so every kid can try at different positions. Every player is only allowed to make a maximum of three goals so other players can have a chance to score. Whenever a player misses the goal, everyone has to make a positive comment about it, so the kid has a positive attitude to keep trying without giving up. There were different age groups, of course, and I realize there that playing sports was not for me, but I had fun there. Every team wins a trophy without the matter got first place or not. My brother and I won many awards there, hehe. We played there for several years until we realize that we aren't meant to play sports.

I was born and raised a catholic (still am) in a catholic family. When I was a kid in Trujillo, there was a priest whose name was Father Henry. I admire him there and told my mother that I wanted to be a priest when I get older. My mother said to me that the name Henry translates to Enrique in Spanish, in which Enrique was my middle name, and that made me wanted to be called Father Henry and not Father Daniel. When my mother told Father Henry that story, it made him cry for sure. One day I wanted to be an altar server (an altar server helps the priest in anything during mass), but I was too young and needed to receive my first communion. When I finally received my first communion, I went to tell Father Henry that I want to become an altar server. After being trained to be one, I eventually became one and continued to be at my local church in Houston until I was nineteen years old as a retired alter server. Typically, altar servers retire at eighteen because they go to college, but I continued until I was nineteen. When I was living in Trujillo, I had an Elmo toy that I brought to mass and wanted the priest to sign the cross to the toy before me, and those priests did. One day the Elmo got lost, and I was sad about it that many people started looking for it, but it was no near to be found, and we overcome it.