"Live and laugh on, no matter what. Even when times are rough," a motto Alex Melendez lives by.

Melendez is a sophomore enrolled at South Broward High School. Although he didn't choose to be in this class, he is excited to put his writing skills to test.

He was born in Florida, but left and moved to Carson City Nevada for several years. Up until 3rd grade he lived there, until he moved back to Florida and continued the rest of his school years. Melendez loves to travel. He has been to every state in the United States, Panama, Nicaragua, England, Russia, Spain and Egypt. For family, he has visited the Netherlands and Costa Rica.

He has very few fears, but one out of them is spiders. He has a really bad case of arachnophobia which is a fear of spiders. He also fears of failure in school and career wise.

Melendez's favorite book is Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. He likes the movie, Joker, and enjoys Asian food, especially sushi.

Some of his hobbies include music and art.Melendez loves to draw on his free time and has folders full of his art. He loves rap music and any genre, except for country music.

He also enjoys to experiment with his synesthesia. It is a condition where one of your senses or cognitive pathways are linked to one another. In his case, he sees colors when he listens to music. He likes making art out of what he sees.

Melendez loves to play sports, especially soccer. He's currently playing for a team whose 2nd in the state of Florida. He has also been scouted to play in tournaments in Spain.

Melendez has several influences. He looks up to his favorite soccer player Kylian Mbappe and aspires to be like him.

“He was the youngest player to ever score in a world cup final," stated Melendez. "He was only 19 and he won the cup in the process! If he can do it so can I.”

Alec also looks up to his grandma who's great with advice and taught him many useful life lessons.