We were lucky to catch up with Minas Fakrajian recently and have shared our conversation below.
Minas, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
My optimism came from the hurdles of life and how my eyes have been opened to the preciousness of life. I am Armenian born in Lebanon in the early 80s at the height of war. My mother said she felt the walls of the hospital shake while giving birth to me. My father had found work in Nigeria, Africa so we all moved, and I went to school until the age of six. There was an uprising around where we lived so my father’s next move was to come to America. We moved in 1990 and have been living here since. I lost my mother and grandfather in a very bad car accident on December 9th, 2000. My whole family was in the car at the time. We were hit on the highway and our car screeched towards the median and rolled several times before landing on its side. I had to wear a halo for several months until the fracture in my neck healed. Shortly after I lost my grandmother. It took many years to finally deal with everything I had gone through. I found through stand up I was able to let out a lot of my emotions and thoughts which became therapy for me and was able to make people laugh. That had always been my thing. I always told people that I aim to make at least one person laugh every day. I’ll still get emotional whenever the topic of my mother comes up, but I’ve gotten better at handling them. It takes just a second for everything to be over, so I handle each day careful and with a smile. Even if I don’t feel like smiling, I know there is someone out there needing it.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
During the day I’m a transcriber helping make closed captions for movies and tv shows and at the same time help edit dialogue for editors and translators and at night I do stand up at various locations around Florida. I also do freelance graphic design posters for upcoming events around town and a successful Facebook Lord of the Rings fan page. I create lots of contents ranging from restaurants around town, wildlife parks and Disney areas.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One of the first qualities I discovered of myself was the ability to make people laugh. The second quality is the ability to look at both sides of a situation. The third quality is the ability to help write/punch up ideas.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The Way of the Peaceful Warrior was a book that helped open my eyes to living in the now, to take in everything around me and see how life is connected. Sometimes we need to help push the trash in our brains out the door and just listen to what’s around us. As Bruce Lee once said, “Be like water.” Find yourself dealing with any type of obstacle life throws at you and help focus yourself on a solid goal.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: minaspretty
- Youtube: @minasfakrajian4372
- Other: Tiktok: minaskerricomedy
Image Credits
The last image of me and the lady is taken by Mike Kitaff.
