Joel Ramirez is a 16-year-old sophomore at Birmingham Community Charter High School. He was born November 3, 2008, in Panorama City, California. Joel aspires to be an automotive engineer for big companies, and he hopes to be able to compete in more track and field races and continue running in the future. Joel has three older sisters, Roxy, Ariyanna, and Melody; he also has a younger brother, Elias. Joel thanks all of his family and most of all his mother, Roxanne, who has taken care of him and was a good counselor.

Joel has many favorite things. His favorite color is not official, because he likes all the colors and the way he sees it–all colors have their unique touch. His favorite movie is Rocky IV because he likes how the main character, Rocky, trains hard defies the odds, and defeats the unstoppable Russian boxer, Draco. Joel is very interested in subjects like automotive engineering, mechanics, and subjects that have anything to do with or are similar to astronomy. His favorite animal currently is a buffalo because to him it resembles strength and boldness. His favorite breed of dog though, is the German Shepherd and he prefers dogs over cats. Joel’s most desirable place to travel to would be a place that is cold and hilly like New Zealand or Switzerland.

Joel doesn’t like to make things complicated; whenever he sees a problem, he always sees a solution and there is always a way to get through something even if it hurts.  He has learned many valuable lessons in his life. Many lessons have helped him to grow into a more mature and wiser person. He has learned to be more patient with things and he tries to hold his tongue in various situations, whenever it isn’t necessary or isn’t edifying. He always tries to find a way to learn, even if it may be just doing homework, and he will try to be more patient and tenacious. He always tries to never let his sight drift to others’ opinions or envy other people.

Whenever Joel has free time, he likes to play any kind of sport, but his favorite is soccer. He likes to incorporate his workouts into his free-time whenever he can. He enjoys keeping himself busy because he doesn’t like spending his time not doing anything productive, like playing video games, which he despises. He keeps himself busy most of the time by helping around the house, helping his mother with errands, or just biking or taking a walk outside.

At first, Joel honestly never thought of getting into high school, because he never really thought about it and how it would be. The only motive that drove Joel to Birmingham was the soccer team. He wasn’t able to make it on the team but refused to give up and proposed to keep training and try out for sophomore year.

In the meantime, Joel decided to join cross-country to help him stay fit. He would always love any kind of sport so he did make an effort in cross-country until it began to kindle a passion inside of him and he decided to focus more on cross-country than soccer. Time went on and Joel ran cross-country in 9th and 10th grade and also ran track and field in 9th grade. He decided not to join track and field because his GPA from the semester before that said otherwise. He chose just to have normal P.E. and was interested in taking different kinds of classes like drawing, journalism, and French.

Joel is now taking interesting electives like Journalism and French. He looks forward to the future and he isn’t afraid of it; whatever he’ll go through, he proposes in his heart to always give it his all and not abandon the teachings he has been taught as a little kid and the teachings he is still being taught. The words that have helped Joel out throughout the road have been and still are; “There is always a time for everything.”