I was born to Robert and Merlinda Esperancilla at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, New York on May 25, 1975. I was the youngest of three children, and the first in the family to be born in the United States. My childhood nickname was "Pinky".

I went to three different Catholic schools in Brooklyn. I initially enrolled at Holy Family for Kindergarten, but had extreme separation anxiety as a 5-year-old, so my parents kept me home an extra year. At 6 years old, I attended Our Lady of Miracles and was there from Kindergarten to 4th grade; then I went to St. Jude's for grades 5-7.

I grew up in the neighborhood of Canarsie in Brooklyn, where practically all of my neighbors and friends were Italians and the rest were Jewish or Chinese. I spent most of those years living on the 3rd floor of a 3-family complex on the corner of Farragut Road and Remsen Avenue. My mom worked as a Registered Dietitian at Brookdale Hosptial during the daytime, and my dad worked at the same hospital in the Admitting Department at night, so I mostly interacted with my older brother and sister. I grew up on Tom and Jerry and the full spectrum of Public Television programming for kids, so I loved learning and was academically inclined. To balance things out, my brother Roy (9 years older than me) introduced me to classic rock, art, pro-wrestling, and games like camping, football, and war. My sister Marie (12 years older than me) spent time getting me into dancing, gymnastics, and disco, while also trying to turn me into a "brainiac" (tutoring me so that I'd always be ahead in my classes). Our family frequently vacationed at Lake Adventure in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania (where I first learned to ride 2-wheelers and swim), and to Poughkeepsie in upstate New York when my sister left for college.

I was in Girl Scouts for a year and earned over 20 badges during that time. I was very much "into" science fairs and spelling bees, and my favorite subjects were social studies and english. I loved reading, and my favorite books were the Dr. Suess and Childcraft Encyclopedias.

Some of my favorite places to go were Pier 17 & South Street Seaport, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, the Bronx Zoo, Jones Beach, and Kings Plaza (the mall). We went into New York City fairly often, and although I loved traveling across the Brooklyn Bridge, I don't remember enjoying visits to this big city too much - mostly because of all the traffic, honking horns, and congestion. I was also too young to really appreciate something that was right in my backyard. My absolute favorite part of NYC was the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center...which I distinctly remember staring at during sunsets and at nighttime, from my bedroom windows. They had beautiful blinking lights, and the birds in the sky always seemed to be flying toward them, from Canarsie to Manhatten.

With so much concrete under our feet, we Brooklyn girls played a lot of hopscotch and jumped a lot of rope. We climbed a lot of chained-link fences too. When I was a little older, Halloween called for "Shaving Cream Fights," and New Year's Eve was filled with fireworks and water-filled balloon bombs. On Independence Day, my brother would come out with his massive fireworks collection and he and the other guys in the neighborhood would put on a display for us younger kids - right from our front yards.

My first pets were goldfish; at one point, I had 8 of them (Muffie, Biff, T.C., Hector, Muffin, Alexander, Abraham, and Abraham Junior). Not too long after my brother and sister moved out, and when I was 8 years old, my folks let me have 2 cats (Sebastian, a calico shorthair; and Marilyn, a red tabby), which we adopted from the North Shore Animal League out in Long Island. Sebastian was 6 weeks old, and Marilyn was 9 weeks old when I brought them home. However, a little over a year later, I developed an allergy toward cats. Later, my friend Antonella Pomara gave me a white bunny for my 13th birthday, Fluffy - whom I was NOT allergic to!

I joined the generation of young wrestling fans who witnessed the beginning of pro-wrestling's rise to fame, mostly because of Hulk Hogan and "Hulkamania". New York was the World Wrestling Federation's biggest market, and it was the 80's. I was a Hulkamaniac, I had a subscription to WWF Magazine, and I vowed that one day, I would win the "Lunch With Your Favorite Wrestler" contest!! (I actually did end up having lunch with a wrestler...15 years later!) In my pre-teen years, I really enjoyed the popular music of the 80's and knew all the lyrics of all the top 40 hits. And yes, just like all the other girls, I too wore banana clips, oversized blouses with spandex stirrup pants, slouch socks, and way too much hair spray.

When I think of the food I loved back in the New York days, I think of Sicilian pizza, Italian ices, rice balls and calzones, deli bagels and bialis, Sabrett hot dogs, knishes, and challah. I think of an extremly urban life, where tall buildings sat beside multi-level homes, old sidewalks with huge maple trees and pines growing out of them, clotheslines between alleyways and yards, lots of traffic, and lots of sirens. We went to Waldbaums, Scaturro's, or Key Food for groceries...Star Value and L.H. Martin were the greatest departement stores...Mandee's and S&D were our favorite clothing stores....Roy Rogers was a great place to eat...and Carvel was THE place for ice cream.

Unfortunately, the kids I went to school with were either bullies (or their friends, often racist), or very quiet and shy, or were my friends on a part-time basis (fair weather or unpredictable). I had good, strong relationships with my teachers and the administration at my schools, however. I learned at this early age that I related to "grown-ups" better than with kids my age, and that "grown-ups" related better to me than the other kids my age! I also learned to be independent, to work hard to get ahead, and I developed a strong relationship with God (who taught me that I was never alone, and to love myself when it seemed I didn't fit in).

One day in 1988, my dad's friend Don told us about Palm Coast, Florida, and I was dying to move down there. I looked forward to a new life...

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