“Cause everyone’s a teenager they don’t know what the [profanity] they’re doing but once you grow up to an adult, you- you see what you actually want, you get me?”

Louie Ramirez is a 22 year-old going through university. He is a dinosaur lover and has gone through many different experiences. He grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood and has had many struggles growing up.

Now in university he has had much more memories made, good and bad. He has many struggles throughout that have impacted him. He has seen the world change throughout the years. He talks about many advice that he would give from his experiences. In addition he also gives his perspective on things and how things were for him when he was little.

Transcript

Ashley Ramirez: My name is Ashley Ramirez. I’m twelve years old and I’m interviewing my 22 year-old brother Louie. One of my first questions I have is can you tell me one of your happiest memories?

Louie Ramirez: One of my happiest memories was the natural history museum where I first got to go see what a dinosaur looked like. [inaudible] ever since then I just liked dinosaurs.

AR: What made you like dinosaurs?

LR: They looked cool, and pretty much, it shows us how things were different. Basically we know what most of the animals look like in our time but, dinosaurs can be very different we just have a picture of what they look like. We don’t know how they actually- actually were, they could be different , and that imagination keeps you going making you think about how could they be, how do they act, if they even roar or something like that, around those lines.

AR:What is something you’re proud about right now?

LR: Hmmm, Something proud..just being born in this time period where it got everything kinda messed up. Being proud of being able to survive this era because it keeps- kept getting worse and worse after I was born. And I saw pretty much how everything changed, and pretty much how technology became better, how the economy got worse, basically that’s what I’m proud of being born in a pretty weird transition period of time, you hear me just being randomly thrown in here. That’s what I’m proud.

AR: Uhm you’re in university right?

LR: Yeah.

AR: How is it in university?

LR: It depends, if you wanna go to university it’s the greatest, you meet new people, you do what you want and you follow your dreams but, if you don’t wanna be there if you’re just doing it because society wants you to and thinks that’s the best thing to do alive it’s the worst. Everyday you look at something you don’t want to do, you don’t want to get up, you don’t want to go there but you keep going in there because apparently that’s the only thing that’s [inaudible] So its good and bad to try-try to get new experiences but for me it teaches me about life.

How life isn’t something that’s gonna go your way, it teaches you about how things can go wrong and how to be an adult right there you got to survive on yourself, right there there’s no one holding your hand. Right there professors are there to help you but [inaudible]. They aren’t there to help you like middle school or high school or elementary, right there you’re all on your own and basically it weighs out who-who wants to put progress into being a better person and being an educated person and so university’s pretty- uh it depends on the person. For me, I wont say it’s good just because it teaches you about life. It prepares you for living on your own and all that but for the education part, education you can get anywhere, community, online, and that’s about it.

AR: Is there anything difficult about university?

LR: Yeah, paying attention uh paying attention is like the biggest one because you don’t want- you don’t pay attention to everything, every little detail kind of teaches you something but you don’t pay attention to it only if you get to a mastery level. For bachelors you could go over certain stuff but for Masters degree or doctors- you got to pay attention into the details, what does this mean? Uhm how do you analyze this? And pretty much, it gets difficult but it depends on you, it depends how much you wanna pay attention.

A lot of people don’t go to class, passing three weeks people are no- the classes get empty, the first day it’s full, by three weeks it’s empty. No one comes to class they think they could- they don’t need to come to class to pass or get an A, and- and it’s true sometimes you don’t need to go. Uh there’s a lot of times I didn’t need to go but I still went because, I don’t know I had nothing better to do. Uh what was I gonna do for one hour and 30 minutes? Sure I could go be- something or do something else but I’m like why not just sit there and listen? Just listening to automatically give you a- a better grade on the test and it depends because you might hear something that-that’s gonna be on the test, that the lectures online wouldn’t give you because it’s just a power point online you can’t really ask- asking questions or asking questions to him or analyzing stuff.

So that’s the hardest part about paying attention and doing your work. I know- I know people who don’t want to do work, it’s hard, right there you don’t get the easy five digit paragraphs, right there you get uh ten page, five page, 20 page, 40 pages. Research, cite your sources, do your bibliography, uh interviews. I had to do interviews too, to professors, to people who are professionals in their field, not just like professors though like uh I had to study physiology you got to go to a physical therapist: Tell me why did you choose this job? What’s in it ? like that you have to include the facility, it’s teaching you how to be- how do you call it? How to stay motivated, how to do hard work and some of it is useless. I had to say that- some of it is kinda useless. But it gives you a new experience to get out there and open- open up yourself. That’s it.

AR: If you could go back to about my age would you change anything?

LR:Yeah, I wouldn’t go to university, I would go to a trade school. Now most of the people I talk to who were gonna graduate, graduated. They have trouble finding jobs, not cause of their degree or not because they keep [inaudible] but mainly because no ones paying them good money for what they went through or sometimes a bachelor doesn’t cut it uh people in the jobs aren’t looking for bachelors, they’re looking for a masters or more, and you reached out a lot of money just going to university.

Literally, uh you can buy a brand new car for all the money you used up being in university and have money to spare, and I would change that, community is not that bad I’ve seen a lot of people that make a decent living, making a same living as someone who went to go get a bachelors. I would rather go to a community college, I- I think I wasted some time uhm going to a 40 year [inaudible] but at the same time I wouldn’t switch anything else and mainly because switching something up just in your past will probably mess up something else in the future. You can’t just say “oh if I did this I would be better off” no there could have been something bad that would’ve went down the line that you never saw coming or that you could never see coming.

So everything happens for a reason, you get me? You chose why you chose it and those other results you got and if you chose some other way, you might not get the same results or you might be off worse. That’s why I wouldn’t change, even though I would change at the same time i’m like nah it’s not worth it, it’s not worth changing everything cause you might get another result that you don’t want.

AR: [Cough] Can you tell me one of your difficult memories that you had? Whether it’s like middle school, high school or right now?

LR:Oh right now! Uhm my most difficult memory is just studying, studying for mostly when I had like seven classes. I hated it, it was the most difficult thing to just sit there, memorize like five power point essays-five-five power points [inaudible] and just memorize it like stay there, repeat it over and over until you have it word for word in your brain, because apparently everything is going to be on the exam especially the most difficult exam I ever had was uh physiology.

Physiology is probably the worst professor I ever encountered. Basically they put their whole book in one power point and expect you to-to basically read the whole book and memorize it. Every chapter word-by-word because and their words just what do you study? Oh just look at the book, but the book is huge! The chapters are huge, you don’t know what’s gonna be on the test. That is the most pathetic thing they could do is show up to their job thinking they’re teaching people, who just say aye look at the book when you study and the power point but the power point is the book word-for-word you just copied and pasted it. In that class, physiology was the worst experience of my life because if I did not have the-the- if the pandemic never happened and he didn’t move it to multiple choice online exam I would have failed that class because it was worthless.

It was worthless all the examples he was saying, he would rather say jokes and lecture. He would rather sit and lecture jokes, try to be a comedian then actually teach and not give a study guide. Uhm even the office hours were pretty pointless, I thought rate-my-professor he was pretty much worthless, to me that would be the worst experience that I ever had and the hardest experience I ever had. In like my whole education track.

AR: Uhm do you have any favorite memories with me or our family in general?

LR: Ah it’s a lot, it’s a lot of memories. Just-just when everything’s right, you get me? Like when there’s no problems, there’s nothing to worry about. In those times.. I don’t know I can’t just really remember them but it just felt great just being in a park and not worry about this and that or when you come home.

Those are the best memories, cause you don’t have to worry about nothing, you could just come home, relax, everything’s at peace. I don’t really have a favorite memory, but just- just those days. It’s just the day, I- I just cant remember them all, you get me? I mean there were just a few but just when you don’t have any problems. Those are the best days.

AR: Uhm do you know I’m going into high school, would you have any advice?

LR: Uhm do extra curricular activities and just pass your classes, don’t worry about- don’t worry about the distractions. Cause a lot of people try to act cool in high school, try to do drugs, get into relationships and all that crap. Most of the people that got into relationships in my school, they got pregnant after they got to high school- after they went to high school they got pregnant and they had to sit there and [scoff] get married and have a child at 18 or 19.

Pretty much their life was over and that’s a lot of my classmates now that I look at it, a lot of my classmates. Their life was over right after high school and the drug part [inaudible] look at them. Also many people did drugs in my class. They’re out doing nothing, they’re off just smoking and working minimum wage jobs. And really that’s all your high school diploma was worth, they can’t get into university because all they wanted was to be cool and smoke out with their friends.

They weren’t doing their homework, they weren’t studying and the best advice for me is to don’t care about what other people are doing, care about yourself, about your future. [inaudible], uh don’t try to be someone else you’re not and people will figure you out and you’ll crash and burn. People will figure out you’re trying to be something you’re not, they might not figure out throughout high school but one day they will because you’ll be someone different and just try to be good.

I mean you don’t need a high GPA to get into the best university but the extra curricular activities will push you to get scholarships, and to sport-to get a sport you liked and trust me they’ll throw money at you if you’re actually good at the sports and they think you can on the team, they’ll throw money at you. I’ve seen people who get full rides because they can play a sport and I never got into sports, mainly because my high school never had access to sports uh they were too poor.

The only thing they had was basketball and soccer, I didn’t wanna play basketball or soccer. I liked baseball. That was the sport I actually knew I was kind of good at but they never had anything, we had no fields we don’t have nothing. Even when they supposedly were gonna add a baseball team, I signed up but they hadn’t.

One last thing of advice would be hmm, don’t be afraid to ask questions or go to office hours. That’s probably the best advice I could give you. Nowadays in my university classes people are scared to ask questions, that’s scary. Because you go home not knowing something important, you get me? You go home and you’re like “ohhh my godd what is-” and you search for the answer online, you don’t get an actually question- and actually answer, I mean and don’t be afraid to raise your hand. Cause even though its a stupid question, sure people are gonna laugh at you but, you’ll remove all you’re doubts and you get to go home knowing that hey now I don’t have to do this or that or have to know this or that.

And also go approach the teachers uh cause they could write you a good letter of recommendation for university and you could get into the best university if you wanna go. Uhm it depends what you want to do and that’s probably the best way. Don’t be afraid, don’t try to act cool and to try to get in relationships, all that crap cause most of the people who get into relationships in high school. They break up after they leave and go to university, they find someone- like an adult, you get me? Cause everyone’s a teenager they don’t know what the [profanity] they’re doing but once you grow up to an adult, you- you see what you actually want, you get me? But it doesn’t mean that you can’t get into relationships in high school, sure there are good ones. There’s ones that last all the way to marriage and all that but just- just don’t get into trouble, don’t let people manipulate you. Oh that’s a good one, don’t let people manipulate you.

There’s a lot of people that want stuff from you, that will try to say stuff behind your back, try to tell people this or that and or just try to be your friend and back stab you. There’s a lot of scary people in high school, you’re gonna see how bad children are at that age. Trying to get into fights, trying to start drama, it’s pretty scary and there’s a huge bullying problem. I didn’t get bullied but I saw a lot of people that were just horrible, like they’ll just pick on them for no reason.

Just cause they looked weak, they looked a certain way. You’ll get destroyed mentally, you’ll get destroyed, you won’t want to come back. And that’s the scary part of high school, that teachers are not there to protect you, teachers won’t actually protect you, they act like that because it’s the law. But if you don’t make friends, good friends that actually have your back, you’re pretty much free- how do you call it? Fresh meat for like bullies, they’ll rip you apart, they’ll tear you down, everything. Until- how you call it? Until you leave school and that’s- that’s the scariest part about high school.

That’s the best advice I could give you say, if you try to act cool, the bullies will tear you down, trust me. There was a guy in my high school that tried to act like the coolest guy, he tried to say he was an all-star soccer athlete, he had a car, he had guns. God damn, people tore him apart to the point where he became a joke. Like a huge joke, everyone around the school would know the joke, you get me? [Laugh] That’s how bad it was, everyone knew the joke, like his name was the joke.

Oh my god I remember this clearly, especially since you’re a girl let’s see. The drama between girls is mostly gossip and who likes who, you get me? This gossip will get you into fights, like some girls hate you just because of what you wear, how you act, and who you hang out with. The guys didn’t- the guys really never fought in my high school, in Animo, they like really fought- they never fought. Everyone was pretty close except for like a few kids who would try to act cool or yeah even the nerds. You know-we call nerds, there’s the-the the cool people. We never fought, the nerds were pretty cool. Sometimes we use to hang out with them, we go “Hey man what’s up ?” We didn’t bother them, we didn’t bully them. If they liked Yu-gi-oh, I don’t know? Pokemon so what if they like it? The guys were pretty tight, we use to have a huge circle, mostly all the guys from my grade level were pretty cool. We never had beef, there was no huge fight, you get me? Sure, some guys didn’t like each other but they didn’t fought-they didn’t fight they just stayed away from each other and no beef. No fights.

But the girls, they were something different. They were- I don’t know? Messed up in the brain- they were- the girls were dying for attention. Especially the ones that think they looked good and the girls that most guys went after, they died for attention for the stupidest things. And just, that’s the only advice I could give you, just beware of everything or if you don’t know ask, ask me, ask your cousins. We knew how much of a battlefield high school was. It’s not the same like it use to be. Just one post on social media, people would either say you’re cool or they’ll bully you till the end of the four years. Some people switched schools because of that, and not many people could say I went to high school and I didn’t get bullied.

Not a lot of people can do that. I didn’t get bullied, well- yeah people did make fun of me but it’s easy to shut them down. You find out one thing about them and make jokes about them and boom.They don’t talk back, you get me? You find one thing about them and boom! You hit them hard, where it hurts, you get me? Something bad about them- Once I find something about them I won’t stop making jokes about them. And then people they’ll back off they realize “Hey your words are powerful as mine, or more powerful than mine.” You get me? Fight with your mouth, trust me.

They’ll back down, they’re too scared to fight like that. They will rather fight you with a fist then mouth, cause how you call it? They can’t, most of the cool guys, quotation marks “Cool Guy,” they’re stupid. Honestly, and if you don’t have good grades I used to talk smack. If you have good grades, like I had good grades I had like a 3.5 GPA at the end of my high school. For real, people can’t tell me smack or call me stupid or “Hey he’s barley passing.” At the end I won, you get me? I won at the end, sure I got into uni [university] and I hate it but at the end I won. And what are you doing flipping burgers ? Anybody can do that, you get me? That’s another thing, grades, your grades do the talking. People who think you’re smart, some of the stupid ones are stupid.

They try to be your friends and like “Ayeee whats up?” And “Just send me a picture of the homework, nah screw you, get the hell out.” I had a lot of people do that, “Hey dude let me get the homework.” I was like, “Hell nah, do your own homework.” To the point where they were like, “Oh let me hang out with you, you’re the smart one.” My group, we use to mess around and for some reason we were the top of the class. For some reason we were the top of the class. We had scores for people in my advisory, it was me and my two friends. We were a group, I mean sure there were two other people but they were like mid-level. We were the highest we were like in the top ten. And so people didn’t- didn’t how you call it? Didn’t talk smack to us, like, “Hey you’re the one with the lowest grade in class, you’re the one doing summer school.” We’re not.  You get me?

And that’s why, don’t try to be manipulated , pay attention, do hard work uh don’t worry about distractions. Don’t worry about going to prom or school events, if that’s not important to you don’t go, I didn’t go. And guess what? Nothing cool happened, school dances that people paid $90 bucks and the rent for a tuxedo, nothing cool happened. Sure you might get the person you like or your crush but guess what? There’s nothing happening, just like that there’s no reward.

“Oh and you’re pretty introverted, you’re pretty boring for not doing that, like I don’t need that stuff to be entertained.” You get me? I like to be alone, just being alone gets me more focused, you get me? Sometimes, when I’m with people I get too distracted. What about this? What about that? While just being alone I can make a whole bunch of progress. So if you don’t need that stuff in high school, don’t do it. Don’t do it. Do curricular activities, pay attention, do hard work, don’t be manipulated and what else did I say? Uh bullies, be careful what you say, be careful what you post on social media, and be careful with who you hang out with. Yeah that covers it all.