I have two brothers, two sisters, and a half-sister. To add to the family, I have nieces and several nephews. At nineteen years old, I became pregnant. It was not easy being pregnant young, but I knew that my baby was going to be the biggest blessing in my life. I have a healthy boy; his name is Carlos. My son’s father had health issues and the unimaginable happened one day. We were in bed and I will never forget, at about one in the morning, I woke up to someone gasping for air. I ran down the hallway, grabbed the phone, and dialed 911. When I got back, my son’s dad was lying in the hallway, choking on his own vomit. We were living at my dad’s house in a small town. I felt like the fire department took too long to arrive. I remember looking at my dad and screaming, “Help me, Dad.” I tried hard to hold up my son’s father in a sitting position. Then he flatlined, with a major heart attack. My son was only three weeks old and I thought, What am I am going to do alone with a newborn? The fire department and paramedics arrived and resuscitated him. It took several months for my son’s father to recover. When he came to live with us, he did not take care of himself or do the right thing to get healthy. I had to make the decision and walk away to protect my son. I wanted to give my son a good life without emotional trauma. The next few years, my son’s dad continued to have heart attacks and one day I got the phone call that he had died. My son was seven years old and I was faced with telling him his father had died.

Eventually, I met someone and got into a bad marriage. The same year my son’s dad passed away, I went through a divorce. I was dealing with the death of my son’s dad and a divorce. For the next nine years after both traumatic events, I remained single. I would sometimes go on a few dates, but nothing ever worked out. I had been through a lot at a young age and was learning how to cope with things. I did not know how to love a man or what love from a man felt like.

I majored in Business Administration and work full time at an Engineering firm as a Project Administrator. I am also an entertainer; I attend public events as a model, ring girl, night club atmosphere model, and tournament host and I do spokesperson work. Being in the entertainment industry, I travel to different states within the United States and sometimes Mexico. My name is Rita Arreola, Rita means pearl. That is where my entertainment name “Rita Pearl” comes from.

I grew up in Southern California and Temecula Valley. I moved to San Diego, California when I was in my mid-twenties. I got lost all the time. It felt like a huge city and I was lonely. I kept to myself and focused on raising my son. Once he got a little bigger, I started attending social events. One day a country bar opened in San Diego named “Moonshine.” I started hanging out there, made friends, and felt welcomed.

When I was young, I auditioned for a major television network pageant, but I did not have the courage to continue. As I got older, things in my life started to change; I became more comfortable with myself and focused on the entertainment industry. I am not famous, but I made a name for myself. Some people in the city I lived in would recognize me and sometimes asked to take photos with me. It felt cool, but I am no celebrity. I am just a regular woman trying to make a living.

I felt people looking at me in a positive way. To me, the entertainment industry is not about being the most beautiful girl because there are many beautiful women out there. I think it is more about having a good personality and presence. I always said a woman needs to have presence; it is what makes you stand apart from anyone else. My life is moving in full swing, I am working with an agent to start booking more events across the country, and maybe I will be able to leave my day job.

On my free time from events, I like going to country concerts. There is this song I love that I had on my replay list for a long time. Jameson Daniels sings the song, and he was coming to town. I was busy traveling and I did not get to attend his concert. As the concert was going on, my friend and I were hosting at a jet ski world championship. I missed my opportunity to see Jameson Daniels live and the truth was, I had been traveling often and was starting to miss a lot. I started to live life in the fast lane and did not necessarily have freedom, but I felt happy. It was exciting to be out in public; it felt cool the few times people recognized me. The reality is, I am just a regular woman, but some people did not see it that way. I can feel all the lights shining on me, but it is getting dark and nobody sees it, including myself.