SLO LIFE AprMay 2020 Low Res

kay, Marisa, you know the drill.
Where are you from? So, I’m originally
from Ventura County. Moorpark to
be specific. It’s a small town, maybe
30,000 people, in southeast Ventura
County near Simi Valley and Thousand
Oaks. I was born and raised there. I
have an older sister. She’s nine and a
half years older than me. In a way, for Oa good portion of my childhood, after she left, it was like I was an only
child. We’re really close now. She lives in Texas now. San Antonio. By
coincidence, both of my parents were born near Miami, Florida. And both
of their families moved out here when they were younger. And they both
ended up in the LA area. My dad grew up for most of his life in Simi
Valley. And my mom spent most of her life in Agoura [Hills]. They were
introduced to each other through mutual friends. After they were married
and were looking for a place to settle down, they chose Moorpark because
of its relatively low cost of living and the tight-knit community as a place
an ideal place to raise a family.
And, what about your parents? My mom was a teacher for over thirty
years, mostly second grade. Sometimes first or third. She just retired. My
dad was big in real estate. He also owned a 7-11 during part of that time.
I was really young when he had it. I think I was just nine or ten when he
sold it. I was the one just doing tasks for some extra allowance money
around there. But never was an official employee. My sister worked for
him which is kind of nice. She got to set her schedule and have a nice
after school job. It was great until he was held up at gunpoint. That was
it for him. He told himself, “You know what? I have a family and I can’t
risk it.” We were always in the store there, too. We weren’t there when that
happened, but he knew we could have been. It was a crazy thing to watch
him go through. So, after that, he decided to sell it and he went on to get
his broker’s license instead. He’s still in real estate to this day.
What were you like as a kid? I grew up dancing. I started when I was
just three years old as a lot of the kids do. I did it for a few years and then
fell out somewhere along the way because I wanted to try soccer and do
some different things. I did a lot of musical theater, as well. And by the
time I turned nine, a lot of my friends in elementary school were dancing,
so I ended up going back to the dance studio and getting super involved.
I danced competitively. I was also on the dance team for my high school.
My life was dance. After the school day ended at three o’clock, I was at
the studio until eight. And the weekends were all about the competitions.
I did jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and lyrical which is now classified more as
contemporary. The only one I never really got into was tap. I think,
because I’m such a rule follower, it would always get me so upset when
people were just going off doing their own thing. Like, so many beats and
it’s like, “Ah, I can’t focus.” [laughter]
That’s the same reason I don’t tap dance… With dance I did a lot
of musical theater, I was huge in the performing arts. I did a lot of
productions and things like that which led to doing voice lessons at some
point. I actually ended up trying out for the show American Idol. I was
sixteen. It was a crazy experience. Tons of people everywhere, some of
them dressed in funny costumes and things like that, doing whatever
they could to get picked to move on to the next round. You realize how
much talent there is out there, too. I was able to see a lot of them perform
because they have you sing for producers first. I did get to sing the longest
in my group, but it’s pretty much, “Yes. No. Yes. No.” And that’s it. They’re
just working through that crowd. It’s all day. That was the only time that
I tried out. It was kind of my one shot. But, really, I did it just for fun to
see what would happen. After that, the path was to come to college. Get a
degree, get a good job.
It sound like you were very focused. I was pretty much a straight A
student throughout. Always super honest, never really got into trouble. I
might have been grounded a couple of times with my parents, but never
for anything serious. Initially, I wanted to be a veterinarian. Loved animals
growing up. But once I started getting further along in my schooling,
writing always seemed to be a recurring theme and passion of mine. At
some point, I saw the movie “13 Going on 30.” It’s a major chick flick
about this girl who wakes up and she’s the editor of a magazine. I said
to myself, “Wow, that’s what I want to do!” It was just so glamorous. I
imagined sitting at a big desk somewhere, striking with my red pen saying,
“No, take this out.” [laughter] I thought I was going to become the editor
of People magazine. That was my top goal. I was like, “You know what?
That’s where I’m going to be.” I just liked all the different types of stories
they did. I like the entertainment and news side of things. I’ve always
liked fashion. And I like some of their other stories that they do that are
unrelated to entertainment. Some of their deeper, investigative pieces. I
felt like it had a wide variety and I always pictured myself living the big
city life, whether it was LA or New York. Yeah, that was my big goal.
What was the next step? So, later in life, I started to really take an
interest in journalism. I looked at [the] Walter Cronkite [School of
Journalism] at ASU. Sonoma State, all the way down to San Diego. My
top three choices ended up being USC, ASU, and Cal Poly. I did not get
into USC. But it came down to ASU and Cal Poly. I visited San Luis
and just loved the community here. I fell in love and decided it was far
enough from home but close enough that I could go back and visit if I
needed to. I love the downtown and all the little shops. For me, it has
always felt like the best of a bigger city and a small town. And going
through the journalism program was amazing. I loved how hands-on it
was. And getting to write for the Mustang Daily. Getting to go out into
the community and do stories but then also taking the other courses
as well, some PR courses, some broadcast. They gave us a little taste of
everything. It was during my time there when the industry started to
change a lot. But it really was the hands-on “learn by doing stuff ” I love
the most. And that’s when I met you.
That’s right. You were our very first intern. Yes, you were just getting
started. I had been looking for an internship when the first issue of SLO
LIFE came out. I wanted to do something with a magazine, so I just
kept calling and calling until you finally gave me a job. [laughter] And it
was so cool because it wasn’t just busywork. You actually sent me out on
a real assignment. You had me write an article about Dan DeVaul. His
farm, Sunny Acres, the rehab community, was causing some controversy
around town at the time and you were wanting to find out what was
going on out there. I remember sitting down with you and you said,
“Okay, here’s what I’m looking for.” I’ll never forget driving up to his
house. As I was parking my car, I thought, “Oh, man, what am I getting
myself into?” I mean, I had done stories for the college paper by that
time, but this was my first semi-professional assignment. It was so cool.
I got to talk to Dan and ask him whatever I wanted as we toured around
the property. Then I wrote the draft and brought it back for you to edit,
and the story turned out to be so much more than I originally thought it
could be. The collaboration was the part I’ll remember. I got to see actual
editing, not just one played in a movie.
That was a difficult assignment. Dan’s a tough nut to crack. It’s true, but >>
APR/MAY 2020 | SLO LIFE MAGAZINE | 41