A Glimpse of Matthew Pignataro's Life
By Kayla Burton
"Relentless."
Without a stutter to his answer, that is the word Matthew Pignataro chose to describe his mother, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis during his senior year of high school. With his younger brother and his dad, Pignataro made sure his mother would be taken care of by her boys. That's the type of family they are: loving, caring, a family who will sacrifice anything for each other, no matter the cost.
Pignataro, a Greenwich, Ct. high school baseball stud, had plans to go to Seton Hall University in hopes to one day work for ESPN as a sports anchor, or even a play-by-play announcer. Prom was truly the only other worry in his life at the time. That all changed when his parents sat him down to tell him that his Mom was diagnosed with M.S. Her eye vision became a complete blur and Pignataro could see the frustrating effects this condition had on his Mom. But then again, he also remembered who his mom was.
"Oh... and persevering," said Pignataro.
Because the second word to his answer when asked to describe his mother couldn't have been left unspoken.
With the combination of his relentless, persevering mother, and a father who is Pignataro's greatest inspiration, Pignataro was able to pursue his plans in attending Seton Hall and later discovered his change of heart from wanting to be on camera, to wanting to work in the Public Relations field. Pignataro continued his education at Syracuse's Newhouse Public Communications school where he is in pursuit towards his masters degree in Public Relations. From high school to graduate school, Pignataro is a hard working, caring young man, with a mom who can see crystal clear of the young man she is proud to call her son.
Interview Transcription:
Interviewer: Kayla Burton
Interviewee: Matthew Pignataro
K- Hello Matthew, can you spell your first and last name?
M- Yeah, M-a-t-t-h-e-w , P-I-G-N-A-T-A-R-O, and it's "Pignataro."
K- So, where are you from?
M- I am from Greenwich, Connecticut which is like thirty minutes from New York City so not as deep in the hills of Connecticut as a lot of people think.
K- And why did you apply to Syracuse?
M- So I first had thought about applying to Syracuse undergrad cause I thought I wanted to be an ESPN anchor like any other kid who just didn't make it big playing sports but I knew I wasn't going to get in here undergrad. My grades weren't good so I went to Seton Hall for my undergrad and then as I approached graduation I started to think, alright what do I really want to do? Do I want to go out? Do I want to get a job or do I want to continue my education? So I applied to Newhouse on a whim, I was like it's the best school in the country and I was like whatever will fly, we'll see what happens and then one day I was actually working a basketball game and I got an email saying I got in. So I was like oh, wow. This is kind of surprising cause I didn't think I was going to get in. And then I came up here and looked at the school and sold.
K-Did you always want to do P.R?
M-So when I went into undergrad I was a journalist major. I thought I wanted to be an ESPN anchor, do play-by-play, and do the whole interviews, the whole nine yards. But as I got older in my undergrad I really guess you could say, I started to realize it's not what I wanted to do and at the beginning of my sophomore year I started to work in the sports information office at Seton Hall which was actually a blessing for me because it really showed me what I wanted to do. So I kind of learned by my junior year I wanted to be a sports information director of a college team or a communications director for professional teams. So being able to work on and off the side of a reporter for the team, like see how everything works, I thought was really cool. So that's kind of why I transitioned into P.R.
K- What was your favorite thing about P.R?
M- I think my favorite thing was doing the sports P.R. I like facilitating interviews, I think that's really fun being the person that mediates the press conferences, that's really cool. But for me its the person who's on the team that nobody really realizes how much they do. Like they travel with the team, they have to set up all the media coordination's that makes the press books, they do so much that it's a position that not a lot of people who don't directly interact with them, know about. And I think that's really cool.
K- Tell me about your personal life, how many siblings do you have?
M- I have one brother, he's six years younger so he's starting to get ready to apply to college, which is for me...that's a shock. I can't see that.
K- Where does he want to apply to? Does he want to follow in your footsteps?
M- No, he definitely doesn't want to follow in my footsteps. He hates cameras, he hates microphones all that. He wants to do marine biology stuff, he loves the water. He's like a fish. Once he gets in, it's impossible to get him out. We'll go to the beach and we'll be the last people on the beach because he won't get out of the water and I literally have to go in and drag him out. But yeah, just the one brother.
K- Talk to me about your parents, did they go to school or college also?
M- So my parents are both from Brooklyn. My dad went to Brooklyn College and my mom went to Fashion Institute Technology in the city, she used to be a magazine producer until she had me, and then she stopped. But my dad is actually first generation in this country from my family, both his parents came from Italy. So straight from Italy and his first language is Italian so he speaks it fluent today to my grandma, who lives with us now. But his first language is Italian so for him growing up here in America, speaking all Italian at home, no English, cause my grandma and my grandpa didn't know English whatsoever so he's really an inspiration to me, I would say. Just the success that he's had in his life, not knowing the language and the only time he had learned it was when he was at school, so being able to come as far as he did is really an inspiration for me.
K- Would you say he is the most influential person in your life?
M- Yeah, without a question, he has definitely been the most inspirational person for me, in my life. Mom comes in too, very close, very close but my Dad just takes it away for me."
K- Growing up with your dad, you're able to be with him, what makes him so inspiring to you? Especially being a man, seeing him as a man?
M- What makes him so inspiring, gosh...I think just because I've never seen him do something that I was taken back. 'Like why did you do that?' He's always done the right thing. He's very high-character individual, he's not afraid to speak his mind when the situation is not how it should be. And he'll let you know when the situation is not what it should be. It's very loud, man. And then he's always very responsive when there's an issue. Like, when my Mom was diagnosed with M.S. - Multiple Sclerosis, my senior year of high school, my Dad had stopped everything he was doing to full-time take care of her. He used to work at the New York Commodities Exchange in the city, so he would wake up every morning and go to work but he completely stopped that and started doing the work from home, electronically, through the computer just so he could be with my Mom full-time and take care of her.
K- I'm sorry, that's hard too. I can't even imagine. How did you find out that your mom had M.S. and how did you handle that?
M- Yeah, so it was my senior year of high school, towards the end of the year, so right before graduation, I knew I was going to Seton Hall, I was playing baseball so the only thing that was focused on my mind was baseball and prom I guess. So I was playing and we had practice one day and I didn't get home until like 7:30 p.m. And my Mom, she hadn't been feeling well and was really tired, really lethargic, her vision was getting a little blurry. But I didn't think anything of it. I just thought she was dehydrated and just over tired. But my Dad called me into their bedroom one day after and said, 'there's something I gotta tell you.' My head was like, there is something clearly not right because he's not acting how he was. He said, 'Mom has Multiple Sclerosis,' and my first thought was, O.K. so she's not going to be able to walk anymore. She's going to be in a wheelchair. It's gonna be a whole transition because she's not the type of person to sit around and watch t.v. all day and do nothing. She was and still is a go-gett-er' she still gets up, grinds all day, takes care of the family. Yeah, she's amazing. So I was kind of thrown off, I was like is this going to affect me going away to school? Do I have to change my decisions? Thankfully, the M.S. only affected her vision so now she wears glasses all the time. She has a little bit of balance issues, but it wasn't something that totally disrupted everything. It was a transition but now we've learned how to live with it, how to cope with it. She gets medication so now everything is as good as it can be.,
K- With your brother being as young as he was, how did he handle that? Was that something you, your Mom and Dad had to talk to him about or did he understand what M.S. was?
M- I think he kind of understands what it is now, he's still super immature I mean he is just getting his license, which is another scary aspect but when I found out, we didn't hide it from him, we didn't really go out and tell him what exactly what was going on just cause he was so young. He was just coming out of elementary school so we didn't feel like it was the right time. He would've gotten thrown off but as he's gotten older he kind of understands what my Mom can't do and what she can do. So he kind of has figured it out. Like when to want to be crazy and when to know to let my Mom do her thing.
K- In the beginning, when your Mom was diagnosed, could you see the effects? Did it change? Did she start to get better?
M- Yeah, you definitely saw the effects, she went from never wearing glasses or need anything, to wearing glasses full-time. So that was a big thing and then she used to drive my brother everywhere, because my Dad used to be at work and I would be at school. And then she had to shut down driving completely. She couldn't drive, cause she couldn't see. Her vision was a blur. So for the first three or four months after she was diagnosed and started getting treatment, it was a slow transition to her getting back on the road so I picked up a lot of the driving shifts. I drove my brother all around but for me that was one of the biggest things, like you saw someone who was always out, she was at the store, she was dropping me off at practice, dropping my brother off at his friends house for practice, to her not being able to do that at all was something that I guess was one of the biggest take-backs.
K- And that was your senior year when you found out, I can't imagine how heavy that is, especially with you knowing that you're about to go to college and leave, how did your mindset change when you first found out and when you had to leave? Were you concerned leaving her? Did you feel good knowing the situation?
M- So when I first found out, I thought O.K. I'm going to have to sit down with Dad and we're gonna have to try and work our way out of going to Seton Hall and going to something closer, because I didn't know what was really going to be the effect, what was going to be required of me, what he was going to need me to do with my bother being so young and with her not being able to do a whole lot. But the first thing my Dad said was, 'her having M.S. is not going to change what you want to do. If you want to go to Seton Hall, you do. Its not going to be a problem, go.' And as I got older I started to appreciate every little thing, she used to do a whole lot more. She still does a tremendous amount, but it's the little things that you see. Like her going to extra mile, you really appreciate it. But as she was going through the treatment she had steroids once a month, she's gotten a lot better. She drives now fully she's back on her feet running around, doing what she does to an extent. But it was definitely a transition. Now I'm less of a pain in her side, like being an annoying little kid. And then I relied to help her out as much as possible. When she got diagnosed, that's when I snapped into maturing all most just because it was something I had to do.
K- If you were to describe your Mom in one word, what would it be?
M- Relentless. In every sense of the term. Whether it was her fighting it, M.S. Her hounding me to apply to school, apply to grad-school. Do this, do that, clean my room- you know how mom's are. Just relentless. And I guess persevering because she didn't let this stop her whatsoever.
K- We'll your Mom sounds like a boss. Thanks Matt. I appreciate you sharing.
Matthew Pignataro Interview
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