Jose Perez- Lopez '19 Recruiting Profile

I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up I had many struggles. In Elementary school,  I was bullied for being weak and I was often teased for the clothes that I wore. In fifth grade, when I was ten years old, I would see my parents always arguing until one day my dad left. I looked up to my dad so when he left it affected me a lot. His decision to leave me and my family made me angry at everyone and everything. I started hanging out with the wrong types of people who were not good influences on my life. Then in seventh grade I found soccer. I fell in love with soccer because I could forget about all of the problems around me. Life was still very hard for me even though I had soccer. On October 30th, 2014 my apartment burned down and my family lost everything in the fire. In the 2014-2015 school year my family and I had to move 3 different times which I found very difficult. At this point in my story, I decided to start focusing on my soccer skills more and getting my grades up so I could go to college. I decided that I wanted to go to colleg, so that, I could make my mom proud. I have felt very helpless and out of control for most of my life because of my life circumstances. The sport of soccer has given me a sense of control over my future. Through soccer I see a way to a college education and upward mobility for me and my family. I do not want to see my mom suffer anymore. My mom has worked so hard to provide for me and my brother. She has done many jobs that most people would never do just so that she can put food on the table and a roof over our heads. I want to go to college to educate myself, to put myself in a position to help my mom, and so I can help other students someday that have to overcome a lot of struggles to succeed.