I was 11 years old when I discovered that I had an uncanny ability to mimic voices I heard, especially cartoon characters.

My favorite show was Yogi Bear. That was my first voice, then his little friend, Boo Boo and a little duck named, Yakky Doodle.

It was then that I began to dream about what it would be like to “be the voice of cartoons.” Little did I know that the people who do those voices are professionals and have been doing it for years.

All I knew was that I would do that one day!

That dream came true when my radio career took me to Los Angeles and, while on-the-air, one afternoon, an agent called. He’d heard all the characters I would perform on my show and asked I’d ever thought about doing cartoons.

Within two weeks I landed my first job, providing various voices on the new season of the Jetsons, with the original cast!

You can imagine how I felt. One moment, I’m a kid watching the Jetsons on TV and then, one day, there I am, in the studio with talent behind, George, Jane, Judy, Elroy and their dog, Astro. It was surreal!

That’s when I met the great Mel Blanc: the voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Tweedy, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam and countless others. He was also the voice of Mr. Spacely, George Jetson’s boss. (George worked at the Spacely Sprocket Company)

Mr. Blanc would mentor me, not only teaching his voices, but showing me, the ladder of life: No matter where you are, there is always someone willing to pull up to where they are. And, you are always in a position to help someone up to where you are.

Dreams do come true. And, they often come with great wisdom.

Dream on!

-Sonny Melendrez