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Miller photography

My parents emigrated from Chile in the 1950s, and my siblings and I are the first generation in America — three boys and one girl. We three boys shared one room and my sister had her own room. I had a great childhood in Forest Hills — it’s a neighborhood that has good bones. We were local kids. We’d ride our bikes to go play stickball, baseball and football at PS 101. There were no cellphones; we went home when it got dark.

Maybe it was because of the change in culture, but my parents really never pushed us. They were involved in our schooling but not as involved as my wife and I are with our kids. They made sure we did our homework and projects, but it was up to us kids to manage our own schooling — to make sure we were ready for the Regents and took our SATs. But I was a goody two-shoes and I liked school.

I went to a Catholic elementary school, but by middle school, in 1978, I was at Russell Sage JHS. Mr. Cooper was our phys ed and math teacher there. He was an ex-Marine and he had a rough voice, kind of a smoker’s voice. He was tough on us and made sure we were physically fit, but he didn’t push us more than we could handle. Every kid who left Russell Sage remembered him.

I never really participated in any clubs or teams in school, and it’s my biggest regret. My son is in public school now, and he has comedy club, theater, band, robotics, chess club, all these activities. I used to rush out of school and get on my bike and go to the playground, but I wish I would have stayed in school and been more a part of the activities there. In hindsight, I see friends who did participate and the stories and friends they made in those clubs — I think I missed out.

I always wanted to be an architect. I always enjoyed putting puzzles together and figuring out solutions to different problems — because all designs are a problem one way or another. I knew I had to do well in math and science, and I always liked art.

I took drafting classes at Forest Hills HS. You take a piece of paper and tape it onto a drafting board. You have a parallel edge, templates and a ruler, which we call a scale. And they teach you how to roll the pencil — you don’t want to just draw the line straight across, you have to roll the pencil to make sure the line stays the same consistency and thickness throughout.

To be honest, I found it boring. The projects weren’t fun projects. I didn’t want to draw a gear or pistons; I wanted to draw elevations of houses and floor plans. Gears to me meant nothing. Nowadays, it’s all on computers, but I still think learning drafting is important — you have to know how to hand-draft before you get on the computer.

In high school, I did an internship four days a week in an architect’s office, which really solidified my idea of wanting to be an architect. After I graduated, I worked with the same firm while going to City College. I think every student should do an internship in a field they want to pursue.

— As told to reporter Rachel Nobel