Stephen Duke-McKenna re-tells the story so well, and with such colour, there is little need to paint a picture of the moment for him.
Asked to take us back to the day he, and a clutch of Everton's other under-18s, found out they were going to Cyprus as part of the first-team squad's Europa League tie in late 2017, Duke-McKenna didn't disappoint.
"It's a funny story," he says, speaking to the ECHO over Zoom.
"We were just about to train, just passing the ball, about to go to the warm up. One of the fitness guys from the first-team came down and said to four of us: 'Come with me'.
READ MORE: Everton striker told to emulate Raheem Sterling change as new challenge emerges
READ MORE: Frank Lampard's Everton plan is about to face a real test that could define season
"It was close to the time they were going to tell us about contracts and we thought: 'They are going to tell us, they are going to tell us'. We were asking questions - 'do we need our boots?' - but he wasn't saying a word other than: 'Just follow me'.
"We got halfway around the training ground, saw the first-team doors and went through them. We're thinking: 'Oh my God, what's going on?'.
"We then went into a room with David Unsworth and two other people. It was dead serious. We didn't know what was going on but then they said: 'Right, first of all let me get it out of the way: you're going to Cyprus with the first-team for the Europa League'.
"My heart started beating dead fast, I kept smiling but I'm thinking: 'Don't start laughing.'
"I was gassed, it was my dream, but I was going to start jumping around.
"He then said: 'This is an opportunity, you have been doing very well. You might get on. Be ready and go and enjoy yourselves'.
"He then said: 'But try not to tell people'. But none of us listened, as soon as we got out of the doors we were on our phones to our mates and uncles. 'Lad, I'm going the Europa League, lad.' My uncle was like: 'You messin'? You messin'?' 'I promise ya'.
"That's how we found it but we thought it was about contracts, either getting it early or getting released. That's what we thought it was."
Duke-McKenna, along with Anthony Gordon, Nathan Broadhead, Shayne Lavery and others, were the players plucked from Everton's Academy pitches and given the chance to be in the squad for the tie against Apollon Limassol, in European competition.
Fraser Hornby, Morgan Feeney and Harry Charsley all started the game. Broadhead would replace Hornby late on and Alex Denny was given the final moments of time added-on, in defence.
In between, Duke-McKenna thought he was going to get his chance.
"I got called to come on," he says.
"This is one thing that did my head in a bit, fuming I didn't get on.
"Me, Anthony and Michael Collins were warming up and Craig Shakespeare called me over.
"'Me?' He nods, so I run to him. 'Take your jumper off, quick, you're coming on'. So as I get my head out of my jumper, Duncan [Ferguson] jumped up and said: 'Actually no, get Anthony'. It was like someone had just stabbed me in the heart.
"I don't know what was the reasoning behind it. I had my dream there and it was ripped away. But I believe that everything happens for a reason, and maybe that was meant to happen; me to experience that feeling and me to want it more.
"I will never forget that in my life, ever. It was a big moment."
Duke-McKenna admits he was "star-struck" when training with the senior players ahead of the trip but there was one player, in particular, that left him in awe: Ademola Lookman.
Like what you've just read, he has a gift for articulating this experience too.
"He is one of the best people I have ever seen train in my entire life. He is unbelievable," he said.
"I was so shocked and I was thinking: 'How is he so good?!' But I was also thinking that if I progressed maybe that could be me.
"My chin was dropping [watching him].
"He just made it look easy, like he was having a cigar, chillin', eating a bacon butty. Nobody could tackle him, he was breezing past everybody, it looked too easy for him. I just watched him closely, thinking: 'How are you doing this?'
"There was Schneiderlin as well and Mirallas was there - he was a player himself. I just kept pinching myself. Am I here? Nah, I'll wake up soon.
"I went from getting on normal planes, where you wait hours, to going straight through. It's like you get babied, it's so professional, everything gets done for you. 'This is the life!' I'm thinking. I wanted to do it more often."
It's understandable that Duke-McKenna, 17 at the time, believed being given a taste of the first-team environment was a sign that a professional contract was headed his way.
Brought to the club by legendary scout Sid Benson, the Toxteth youngster had been with Everton since the age of 11, having played in L8 for Team Oasis and Kingsley United, before being picked up by Liverpool. Benson convinced him to make the switch soon after.
But in the summer of 2018, just six months after the game in Cyprus, the Blues released him.
"I'm quite laid back but nobody expected it, nobody around the club expected it," he said, his demeanour now becoming somewhat more serious.
"When I got told, I thought I had had one of my best seasons and I'd had the first-team call up. So I was like: 'How?'
"They had their reasons for it, I don't know the reasons for it. When they had me in the room they asked: 'Do you want to say anything?'
"All I was thinking in my head was: 'It's your loss, not mine' and 'you'll see what I become' because I believe in myself.
"No point complaining about it, go and do something about - that is my mindset. These set-backs drive me. I'll prove myself right and you wrong."
Duke-McKenna, who joined Leyton Orient on loan on deadline day, was speaking to the ECHO in September 2021 before coming on as a substitute for QPR before scoring a penalty in their penalty shootout victory over Everton in the Carabao Cup.
Having made his first-team debut last season, the 21-year-old moves between the club's under-23s side, the newly formed B-Team and Mark Warburton's senior side.
Two seasons ago, he was at crisis club Bolton Wanderers.
"I'll be honest, it was the worst experience," he said, bluntly. "It was bad.
"When I was at Bolton, they were going through administration, new owners...I didn't like a second of it. I had no digs and I was getting trains, for two-and-a-half hours everyday, just to get to training.
"Having to get up at five in the morning and sometimes not even getting into training because the second train was cancelled.
"I'd get halfway there, the second train would be cancelled and I had to phone the coach to say I couldn't make it in, and go all the way home again.
"On top of that, because of the administration they weren't paying us for five or six months so it got to the point where I couldn't afford to go in.
"I was having to buy £300 worth of train tickets but with no pay, for five or six months, and I had a child to pay for. It was all crazy to be honest."
Duke-McKenna's career is now in west London but he still yearns for home.
"I feel like I'm the only Scouser in London!" he says.
"I think I've found one Scouser since I've been down here, working in Asda.
"I heard his accent and I was shocked. I don't see many down here."
A version of this article was first published in September 2021
