Share the Dream: My Life, My Focus, My Goal Share the Dream: My Life, My Focus, My Goal: Martinez, Julius

Share the Dream essay by Julius Martinez

My name is Julius Martinez. I am from Massachusetts, born and raised. I grew up in Methuen and stayed around Lawrence where I live now but I did live in Andover where I went to high school, a very different environment from all the places I lived. I’m a child of 3 and I'm the oldest. I have a younger sister and younger brother, one in high school and the other in middle school.

I grew up in a very difficult neighborhood and environment, I grew up in the hood and some decent neighborhoods but at one point it was just me, my mom and dad and it was very abusive due to the stories my mom told me. My dad was a street racer, that's how he made most of his money. That’s a reason why me and my dad are still very close to this day. We work on every car we get a chance.

When he used to lose races he would sell car parts to buy new things to make his car faster. When I was born he had to get bailed from jail and was only there for an hour. Well that’s what I read in my baby book. I was never really born or have any memory of my parents being with each other while I was growing up.

When it was time to pick a college to continue my academics and football journey it almost was not UMass Dartmouth. I was going to end up at Norwich and I did not like it over there whatsoever. I had 14 offers to play football and at first I was not looking here not because I didn’t want to but to have better schools looking at me and better schools as well. I really wanted to go to Husson with my quarterback because that’s my best friend and to keep playing with my high school quarterback is everything people dream of.

When it was the last three days to pick a college for next year I had to make a tough decision right when I got home but that was in till I checked the mail getting accepted to UMass Dartmouth and it being cheaper then Norwich I called my Coach and told him that I was ready to play for him.I was so happy that I called my mom knowing she was not gonna be happy because she wanted me to go to a military school for some reason which was crazy to me but I texted an instagram to make me a post and when he got done making that post I posted it on instagram and twitter thanking all my friends and family who helped me get where I am today.

Ever since I’ve been here it's been nothing but fun. Meeting new people having new teammates its like an all brand new start, knowing that I’m gonna make the most out of this because who knows maybe I will stay here for 4 years or I end up at a better school and that’s the goal if I want to make it with this football thing I have going on.

The way I’m going to leave my mark on this world is going to be a challenge knowing that I’m still undecided, might go into the criminal justice field, maybe be a firefighter and save my city and the people that are in danger. All that matters is that I’m going to help the world by making it a better place again.

When I’m done with college my goal is to be playing pro football because I know that I can make it in life with this. My family always saw me being the golden ticket out, all my cousins never really had a good future. Some are either working for the rest of their lives and some are doing time in jail so I know that I’m the golden ticket out from the trenches