My name is Brandon Perez, and I am a Mexican American. I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. As a kid, my dad would take me to Mexico, which gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of time outdoors, until I started elementary school. However, even in New York City, I spent a lot of time outdoors while growing up. I did this by going to the parks to play soccer and going on field trips with my church youth group, called Idente Youth. I was also involved in a lot of extracurricular activities, such as Police Explorers (this was run by an organization that works with teenagers to get them interested in law enforcment), Mock Trial (we actually learned about real-life court cases and competed against other schools nationally) and other after-school clubs.
I remember when I was in elementary school, some friends and I thought we would go to college together. We drew a blueprint (this is like a design plan) of our future college dorm, which would include an Xbox and a PlayStation, and drew where our stuff would be. Looking back, I am surprised I was even thinking about college at that young of an age! When I first got to college, I was surprised by how different it was from my home in the city, since I went upstate where there are a lot of farms and wilderness.
