Being judged

Luckily, I have never had a coach disregard me because of my disability. I’ve never been in a position where that has happened to me. Everyone that I have played with, and against, has treated me the exact same way. I’m still an opponent to the other team and a team mate to my team so I’ve never had to deal with that luckily.

Regarding being an example to other people it’s not something where I say, “I’m excited to be a role model today”. But I know that I am, so I just have to watch my actions and how I do things because I know there are people watching. People look up to me, so I know that is something I always have to keep in mind, no matter the circumstance.

Usually I get it a lot of people saying, “oh you’re an inspiration to me”. I definitely get that a lot. It’s nice that I’m an inspiration to people, but I want to make sure that I’m an inspiration to people or kids that have the same disability as me so that they know they can do anything they put their minds to. And that they don’t have to worry about any type of disability or getting treated different.

My first game as an elite footballer

Honestly, it was surreal. When I was growing up, I always wanted to play professional soccer. When I was growing up, there wasn’t a league in America so there wasn’t much to look forward to, even though it was always my dream. When the league came back, and I was drafted, and I played in my first game it was surreal to be able to say that you’re a professional soccer player.

That’s what I would always write on all my assignments where it asked what do you want to be when you grow up and I’d say a professional soccer player. It’s so cool that I can look back and say that I’ve achieved that – what my dream was when I was five years old.