biography Robin Sierra Biography - #97

[ethanjaeda 139]

 

  I thought it would be really rude to just tell Robin’s story as if it were my own, not saying if you do you’re rude or what have you—I just thought it’d be better if Robin told his own story in his own words. So I emailed him and asked precisely that, his own words. He sent me back this:

 

  “I don’t even know where to start, really. Cool I was born. Awesome. Great start.

 

  Okay, I’ll be more serious. I was born on June 18th, 2005, in—and this is the part that surprises people—in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Surprise, surprise. Hablo español con el acento puertorriqueño más fuerte conocido por el hombre. My mom was visiting family in New York and my dad was vacationing in NYC from Montréal when they met.

 

  My full name is Robin Mateo Sierra Martineau. I used Mateo Sierra when I was in Puerto Rico or visiting relatives in New York, and I used Robin Martineau when I was in Canada. Not because I was forced to, but when I was younger I didn’t like how in Spanish my name is Robín (ro-bean), rather than Robin (rah-ben) in English. I stopped caring when I was like…thirteen, but it’s not that important. If you’re cool enough you can call me Mateo, it’s still my name, but if you’re some random person on the street don’t call me Mateo. But if you’re a teammate you can call me Mateo. It's like calling someone named ‘John’ Johnny. It’s a personal thing.

 

  I spent half of the year in San Juan and the rest in Montréal, and then later Toronto. I would be in Canada during prime hockey season, and then I’d come back to Puerto Rico to root for the Habs or the Leafs in the playoffs from Hato Rey. My dad would ramble for hours and hours about hockey. Honestly I’d set him off so he’d order us pizza. (But don’t tell him that.) He would tell me the stories of Wayne Gretzky, Lemieux, how much he hated the Avs for taking the Nordiques, how ‘this was the year the Leafs were going to take the cup!’…and then they didn’t. 

 

  I started on my elementary school’s hockey team, and then in Puerto Rico I’d play a mix of both inline hockey and ice hockey, since Puerto Rico had the only ice rink in the Caribbean. Me and my mom would drive two hours from San Juan to this little city called Aguadilla at the complete ass crack of dawn so I could spend the entire Saturday there. I’d play hockey by myself, without a goal, so I’d just make up an arbitrary spot where I wanted the puck to go. I got told off once since the puck would leave black marks on the wall where I shot. I’d show up when they’d open and left when they closed. They started calling me ‘La Hoja’ when I’d show up, since the jacket I’d wear had a Canadian flag stitched on the side of it. 

 

  Then Hurricane Maria hit. I don’t know why I’m being so dramatic about it, I wasn’t even there. I always left for Canada in July so it’d be easier to transition back into life in Canada. It hurts to think about how many things I saw for the last time and never knew about it. My mom stayed, and on the nineteenth of September she texted me. I’m not translating it because it makes me cry if I look at it too long. 

 

  “Aunque me pase algo Mateo, siempre te querré. Siempre te amaré aunque ya no esté aquí. No te preocupes por mí.”

  I said:
 

  "¿qué pasa si te pasa algo?"

 

  She said:
 

  “En caso de que pase algo, patina para mí y te animaré desde las nubes :DD Pase lo que pase, todo estará bien. ” 

 

  She lived, by the way. I felt like we were getting sad. She was scooping water out of the apartment with buckets. Apparently she used one of my old helmets when the buckets overflowed. When that failed she hid in the bathroom with things she cared about in a trash bag and our cat. 

 

  A week later she sent me a text that said:

  “We’re okay!!! The apartment is a little soggy but I saved the things that mattered. Link (our cat) is mad at me for putting him in the [pet carrier] though xP”
 

  Anyway, she’s okay. She moved to Toronto with us for a few years after everything. Let’s move this back to hockey. I COMPLETELY forgot that’s what this was about. 

 

  Obviously, after Maria I couldn’t go back to Puerto Rico, so I stayed in Puerto Rico and played essentially little league ice and inline hockey, the latter on a much more hobby basis during the summers, but that’s not important. I started playing Junior Hockey for a team out of Mississauga when I was…fourteen-ish? And I stayed with them for a few years, bounced to a different Junior Hockey team based in Toronto when I was sixteen so my parents could save money on gas. It’s all very vanilla. 

 

  As time went on, though, I started to feel like I was giving everything to this game but this game was giving me nothing in return. Which, honestly, could’ve been me thinking I’m better than I was. But still, I wasn’t exactly happy with where my life was. So I had this plan where if I made it to University and nothing changed, my College Hockey career would be my last shot. 

 

  Then, a break! Well, more like two. Firstly, I got an agent [Me! :D] who was able to put me into contact with the VHL. Then, a second break! I was contacted by a VHLM team who wanted an interview. My agent wrote back to them, and they never responded. I won’t name them to keep things copacetic. And because my agent begged me too. [Yes. Yes I did.]
 

  It was. Fine, it hurt a little, but it was more frustrating. Disappointing. I’m not sure of the word to use. It made me stop and really stop and think about hockey and my life in general. It just felt like I wasn’t going anywhere with my life. Like I was stuck in the same sweat-soaked jersey with Fairweathered teammates and disgusting locker rooms with bacterial, fungal, and parasitic strains and pathogens that would truly violate the Geneva Conventions.  

 

  So I chose a date, and said that if nothing changed then I’d say ‘F[Agent Censor]k It All’ and I’d move on with my life and drop hockey like it never mattered to me. I think it was more out of anger, but I still think that it was the manifestation of an underlying issue. I think it was me just being tired. 

 

  And then I was drafted by Halifax. 

 

  So. Joke’s on me I guess. 

 

  I think my mom was more excited than me, she screamed so loud Link freaked out and broke a plate and (somehow????) knocked a clock off of a wall. She cried, I [definitely] cried, fun for the whole family. Besides Link. 

 

  One thing I want to bring up is the fact I dropped the ‘Martineau’ part from my jersey. Well, not only for space because French just LOVES to have silent letters for no reason, but remember how my mom put things she cared about in a trash bag during Hurricane Maria? 

 

  One of those things was a pair of my old inline skates. She said she ‘didn’t want me to lose one more part of my home’ like she did. Yeah. I cried. Only a little. They’re behind me as I type this and I like to think of them as my good luck charms. The day she told me that was the day I decided to drop the ‘Martineau’ part of my name from my jersey. Not out of disrespect to my dad, to Canada, or to Québec, but out of respect to the island that the other half of me still lies. I wear ‘SIERRA’ so that maybe one kid in Bayamón, Aguadilla, Ponce, or hell even Mayagüez can see it and know this sport has a place for them. 

 

  I think that’s it, really. I don’t really know what else to add. I’m sure my Agent will come up with something witty. Oh, actually, the date that I set passed a week ago. 

 

  Cool. Yeah. RS97 Out.” 

 

I, the Agent, have nothing witty to add. This is awkward, thanks Robin. 

 

  P.S. Robin ‘RS97 Out’ is BADASS, start doing that more k thx bye LETS GO 21ST!!!! 
 

Words: 1400+ (but like 1446. Maybe 1450 I’m not sure.)

Edited April 30 by ethanjaeda

[LucyXpher 1,572]

Excellent bio! That was fun to read and we're so glad to have you on the 21st!

[ethanjaeda 139]

14 minutes ago, LucyXpher said:

Excellent bio! That was fun to read and we're so glad to have you on the 21st!

  Thanks! Glad to be here ^^

[ace_five_ 465]

2 hours ago, ethanjaeda said:

 My full name is Robin Mateo Sierra Martineau

I can just hear your mother yelling this in a Spanish accent when she’s upset with you

[ethanjaeda 139]

13 hours ago, ace_five_ said:

I can just hear your mother yelling this in a Spanish accent when she’s upset with you

  "I treat it like EAS I hear it and start running for cover it's instinctual at this point. It's worse in text because she goes '¡Robin Mateo Sierra Martineau!', but I can't take it seriously because my name is so long the two exclamation points are in a long distance relationship ." 
-Robin
 

[Banackock 8,123]

Good work

[Oddpurplefly 153]

Awesome job! 

 

Reviewing:

 

I really enjoyed reading this biography. I have seen several biographies where they speak in the thrid person about their player ( I know that's what I did too ), but here he talks in the first person. It's kind of like somebody having a reflection on his life and having that conversation in his head or someone narrating his life maybe kind of like how in movies the main character narrates his story. It's different and definitely enjoyable. Maybe more people do it like this, but for me it's the first time reading it like this which does make it enjoyable to read and easily keeps the interest all the way through

 

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