By: Ollie Pratt
Leonardo Sanchez is a 14-year-old freshman at Jenks High School with a passion for guitar. To understand why he loves playing so much, you have to go back to before he was born.
During the Vietnam War, there was a veteran named Bob. Bob loved playing guitar, and a woman he knew also wanted to learn. This woman just so happened to be Leo’s mom.
Bob gave Leo’s mom his guitar, in hopes that she would learn to play as he could. Leo’s mom never did learn to play the guitar, but then in Mexico City, Leonardo Sanchez was born.
Leonardo did not stay in the city long, however, as he left when he was only eight months old. Over the course of his life, he visited Mexico and the apartments he was born in. But when he was seven years old, his life would change.
Leo would receive his first guitar from his mother at seven years old, but there was one problem: how would he play it? His mother never learned to play the guitar, so how would young Leo learn?
Well, he really just learned from an electric guitar instructor, but he wasn't very good at it. As a matter of fact, he only taught Leo chords and the basics. It wasn't long before Leo realized that there was nothing more this teacher could teach.
Then, through the internet, Leo’s mom found an online instructor from Europe, claims high school English teacher James Gross, later backed up by Leonardo himself, adding that his teacher lives in Spain. Gross states that Leo wakes up at five in the morning every Thursday in order to learn guitar.
In fact, Leo plays guitar so well that he was cast as a musician in the school play! He actually plays two styles of guitar, classical and flamenco.
Leonardo Sanchez is the ideal Jenks student, as James Gross has stated, “He knows when to goof off and when not to”, also stating he is one of his most respectful students. If he can be both a master guitarist and the perfect student, maybe that means we all can be a little bit better.
