At Your Service: Chris A. Charles

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Chris Charles

Updated: March 4, 2012 8:09AM

Age: 13

Hometown: Munster

School: St. Thomas More Catholic School, eighth grade

At home: mother, Elly; father, Jeff; brothers, Matt, 17, and Greg, 10

Besides home and school, how do you use your time? “Sometimes, I’ll play my iPod; others, I’ll play my guitar. On the weekends, I’ll play Xbox; I play Xbox 360 the most. ‘Modern Warfare 3’ is my favorite game. I’m learning the guitar kind of on my own and I’m hoping to get more into it later. I’m leaning more to the acoustic side.”

You’re a multisport athlete at St. Tom’s. “I play basketball, soccer, cross country and track. It makes me happy when I’m running and, after I’m done, it just makes me feel better.”

How did you contribute to your school’s Catholic Youth Organization soccer title last fall? “I think I did pretty well overall. There were a few mistakes I made. Probably what made me happiest throughout the game was that I got the goal to tie it and go into the shootouts.”

How would your friends describe you? “They’d say I was funny, a little goofy sometimes, and that I’m just fun to be around.”

How is growing up today different from 20 years ago? “One of the major things I’d normally think about is technology — how advanced it is now than what is was then. It’s not really good or bad.”

How many junior high students do you think have a social network profile? “Probably 80 percent.”

College and career plans? “I like art a lot and ... I was thinking that in high school and college, I’d take a lot of things that had to do with art. My biggest career idea is probably architecture.”

What distinguishes your educational experience from that of public school students? “One thing about being in a private school is that it’s smaller and everyone is friends; there’s not just groups of kids who sit by themselves, away from everyone else. Basically, everyone is friends with one another.”

How is life as a middle sibling? “It’s kind of weird being in the middle because I have a little brother who gets on my nerves sometimes, and I have an older one who tries to beat me up a lot. A good thing about it is, well, I don’t like to say this, but birthdays — ’cause I get cake and stuff.”

What don’t adults understand about teens? “Mostly about what we’re thinking, and how we have everything in perspective when they say something about a subject.”

— Compiled by Anthony D. Alonzo,

Post-Tribune correspondent