Personal Statement

Hello and welcome to my profile. My name is Andrew, you can call me AJ if you like.  A little bit about me. I am told that I'm a friendly young man. I was raised to respect others and myself. I learned about accountability and responsibility at a young age and try to live and act accordingly. I am known to be funny and have a good sense of humor, this is important to me because it helps keeping things in perspective. I try to keep myself at an even keel so to not get too high or low emotionally. I think this has helped me both with academics and athletics. Some of the things most important in my life are my family and faith. I have a younger brother and sister and we have a dog too. My siblings are also great student athletes. We are all grateful to our parents whom were both competitive athletes in multiple sports for our athletic abilities. My parents instilled in us that being physically fit, eating healthy with enough sleep is a way of life. Things I love doing include all sports, especially baseball which is my passion.  My handle on Instagram is fitting, it's "born_2_baseball," since my dad was a 4 year player in HS and then some in college. My mom's dad, my grandfather played professional baseball in Japan for many years as well in Venezuela his home country. His 2 sons my uncle's played in the Astros organization. I'd like to mention my grandfather was also inducted into the Japanese and Venezuelan Hall of Fame. That's quite an accomplishment. I'm pretty proud of that. Besides sports, I enjoy being with my family as we're all really close and love each other's company. I enjoy working out with my dad, he is very knowledgeable in exercise. I love school and reading new things. I enjoy being outside going to the beaches, lakes and mountains. My dad has been the most influential figure and coach in my life. I admire him tremendously. He went to the US Navy after HS to be a Combat Corpsman, then worked in the Fire Services for 20 years as a Firefighter paramedic. Upon retiring after 20 years because of serious injury.  He continued learning and became a Critical Care Flight Paramedic for another 10 years. I want to add that my father was injured rescuing a person and lost the ability to walk without assistance, he needed 3 surgeries and 24 months to walk again. Many doctors told him he'd never work again in any demanding job field. My father is not a person who gives up or shows weakness. He always said "helping those in need was his calling and it's the greatest privilege to serve your fellow man. in their darkest hour.  He went on to work in a more demanding field of flight Medicine for 10 years until his body finally failed him. My father has taught me what it means to be selfless, to put others first  before yourself. He sacrificed so much of himself, so much of his health.  I know he is in pain every day, I see it.  My mother is such a hard worker too and both of them have shown us that with hard work and a never give up attitude you can achieve your goals. I'm very grateful for those that do that type of work to keep us safe.  My father is the one who introduced me to the greatest game in the world, baseball.  As far back as I can remember my dad always told me of the importance of education and that baseball can be a vehicle to get me a great education.  He "says you're never too old to learn new things." I should mention, his mom and her twin sister (my grandmother and Aunt) were lifelong educators. I think that has rubbed off on us some. My parents have an amazing relationship, they've been married 20 years and they truly love each other and us. They both say that after us, baseball is like another child of theirs.  They love watching us play and support us emensly. That's how I feel about baseball.  If I am blessed enough someday to have children of my own, I will for sure introduce them to baseball while loving them as my parents do us. 

Well thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this. I hope it answers any questions you might of had about me. 

Sincerely,

Andrew "AJ"