Jaydon Mata is a 16-year-old junior at Birmingham Community Charter High School. This is his second year at Birmingham, and he has had good experiences since joining. He was born on December 2nd, 2008, in San Antonio, Texas. Jaydon is the oldest child of three siblings. He lives with both his parents and his three younger siblings, and his Frenchie named Cookie. He has one younger brother at Birmingham and two younger sisters, one being 12 and the other being 7. He grew up in the valley throughout most of his life and lived with his grandma most of his childhood. As a kid, he attended Cohasset Elementary School. Jaydon likes hanging out with his friends, watching superhero shows, especially Marvel ones, and going out to dances and parties. He plans to join the Navy once he graduates high school because he wants to be the first person in his family to join the military and he is still unsure what career is a good fit for him, but he hopes to figure something out.

Jaydon really enjoys working out and going out on walks at night because it brings him peace and helps him clear his mind of everything and it makes him feel better about himself because he strives to become a better version of himself. Some other hobbies he has are that he enjoys dancing a lot, mostly the Mexican dance styles. He is also in a dance team, where he also gets rented out to be a chamberlain for quinces.

Jaydon likes to play video games on his PlayStation with his friends. His favorite games are Fortnite and Call of Duty. He likes to go out a lot, especially with his friends. He likes doing everything with his friends because he has a lot of fun with them, even if it’s just staying at home hanging out. Something else Jaydon also really likes to do is cook. He is taking a culinary class at BCCHS, but at home, he likes to cook recipes he sees.  He’s not amazing, but he thinks what he makes is good.

He likes to listen to music, especially Spanish music, which is his favorite type of music because he grew up listening to it the most. Some of his favorite music groups are Banda Corona del Rey, Edicion Especial, Ariel Camacho, and many more. Music has a huge impact on Jaydon’s life because it helps him relax, and he is not a very talkative person. So he just listens to music, and it helps him go about his day. Without music, he feels like a part of him is missing. He also wants to learn how to play the accordion because it seems like a fun instrument to learn, and he can play his favorite songs on it. In the future, he hopes to be able to play it well and play some of his favorite songs on it. When he is older, he hopes to have a good-paying job or be his own boss and live on a ranch with a lot of land so he can have horses and a lot of trucks and have his family. That is one of his biggest goals in his life. Jaydon is excited to start journalism with Mr. Hughes for the first time.