Have you ever had a crazy dream that seemed absolutely wild, but you didn’t even realize how wild it was until you actually achieved it? Because deep down you just knew you would. This was playing football for me. In my sophomore year of high school, I saw how I could make my dream come true. I started playing alongside other Division 1 athletes which soon made me realize how strong my passion was to play Division 1 in college. Going into senior year I took it upon myself to put in those extra hours lifting, running, conditioning, and watching films. It took days of waking up before school at 5 am and after school workouts. I found myself putting relationships and sometimes friends/family aside to chase my dreams. This all paid off when I got an offer to play ball at UC Davis, a Division 1 FCS school with great academics and a football culture. Man, I was happy. I grinded for this. I worked hard and this was one of the first times in my life where I could see that when you really have your mind set on a dream, you can chase it, you can achieve it.

One of the biggest wake the fuck up calls was when I got there on my first day. I came in thinking I was the man because I was the man back home but EVERYONE is the man when you go division 1. Everyone is big, fast, smart, quick, explosive, and competitive. I went from being the best to probably being the absolute worst on the team. I told myself, to not give up and to push forward. My freshman year Covid hit and we had our season in the spring. I did not play as much as I wanted to but I would use that time to grind and continue to make strides to get better. In my second year, I went into the fall expecting to play but got let down again because I was not good enough, unfortunately, had to burn my redshirt. I kept having this thought that how could this be the dream if I don't even play? It would have been so easy to give up, but I kept pushing and striding.

Going into my junior year at Davis I was finally getting some good playing time and making some impactful plays. When I thought everything was going well my season came to an end as I tore a tendon in my foot. Probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through. I could not walk for about a month and a half and was riding a scooter to get to class. I wore a boot all the time, slept like shit, and endured a challenging  surgery. I was told there was a chance I would never be able to step on the field again. Fortunately, the surgery went well and I took my rehab day by day, exercise by exercise, rep by rep. To be honest rehabilitating my foot sucked. The days were long; I would be at the facility for 5-6 hours, I would be tired and sweaty, and I felt like no one noticed or cared. I knew I just had to show up everyday and be consistent and eventually I would be cleared. I started stacking the little wins in my head. I was finally able to walk, I was finally able to jump, I was finally able to jog, I was finally able to run, I was finally able to squat, until eventually I was finally able to play football with no pain. It was a 5 and a half month journey and I still find myself with the desiring urge to be better than yesterday, to chase my dreams, to not give up, to take over the challenges life throws at me.