Me

who has to wake up in the morning and go to work, of course I had my moments of weakness and anxiety, but the euphoria that was always going on around me kept pushing me forward. I knew I was living through something extraordinary, and as tired as I may have been sometimes, I didn’t want to miss a thing.

CONNECTING WITH OTHER KIDS
    IT WAS THANKS to all the hard work I was doing that I had the opportunity to have so many amazing experiences and meet so many amazing people, a connection I felt with even more clarity when, for example, we became UNICEF ambassadors. The band managers wanted to make the most of our trips around the world, so in our roles as ambassadors we would invite underprivileged children—who lived a reality that was very different from ours—to our shows. Many times they were orphans, or homeless children living on the street who had faced intense hardship in their lives at a very young age.
    In those days, I think our smallest concert was for an audience of about 70,000 people. We also had the world record of 200,000 people in attendance for our concert in the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo. But when it came to spending time with these children and bringing a little bit of joy into their lives, all the glamour of the private jets, having entire hotels to ourselves, private chefs, personal bodyguards, tutors, assistants, and so on—all of this ceased to exist. The organizers would say to us, “Hold on for a second; now we are going to spend time with children who are no more or no less than you. They simply live a very different reality than yours.” And the chance to be able to spend time with those children was one of the most valuable experiences that Menudo ever gave me. I learned to see life from another perspective, to comprehend what is truly meaningful and what is not—a lesson that is beyond important for an adolescent living in the world of luxury and abundance.
    I truly began to understand how many children live in other parts of the world. It was not easy, and may have been a heavy hit of reality, but I loved the experience. It was very special because I was the youngest of the group—at that time I was twelve—and the boy ahead of me was fourteen. There is a big difference between twelve and fourteen, and almost all the kids they invited were my age or even younger, so I was quickly establishing a special connection with them. They had such a different sense of wisdom than my own, and I can say I learned so much from them.
    I didn’t feel bad about having so many more material possessions in comparison to the little they had. I felt good because of what I was able to share with them! But I also started to realize that although I had many things they didn’t have, they possessed so many other things that I was missing—for example, freedom. Everything is relative in this life, and what is normal for you may be a treasure for someone else. Although they were lacking possessions, they had the freedom to go wherever they wanted whenever they chose. And even though I loved the stage, and the fans’ endless admiration, the life I led was very strict. For us, a typical day began with school lessons at eight in the morning, and then we’d autograph records before lunch. In the afternoons we would have photo shoots, rehearsals, and media interviews. These children, on the other hand, did whatever they wanted, as life on the streets gave them absolute freedom. Granted, that liberty comes with a great deal of hardship, but back then I couldn’t help but notice how I had to ask for permission to go around the corner, and they could do whatever they wanted without checking with anybody. We were being watched at every moment and there was a series of rules we had to follow for security. So even though I had such a wonderful life, unique and joyful, I undoubtedly also found great beauty in their absolute freedom.
    I don’t know if I realized then the impact these experiences were going to have on my life in the long run. I don’t think that at that moment I thought, “This experience is going to affect my life forever.” I believe it wasn’t until years later that I realized how deeply the time spent with those kids affected me, as these experiences planted the seed for the philanthropic work I began to do later and continue to do to this very day.

LESSONS LEARNED
    THE YEARS I spent with Menudo were a time of many changes and many lessons learned. First, because Menudo was my