Everyone has that love, that one thing they hold close to their heart. For me, it is sports.

As a child, I played sports year-round, anywhere from basketball, football, swimming, soccer, and mixed martial arts. Sports were the gateway, the way to stay out of trouble and stay on the right path. It was a way to get accepted.

As a child, I suffered a stroke, which made me have Cerebral Palsy. Now don’t think that this meant the end of the world, it just put some more roadblocks in the way. I had to work twice as hard, and I was completely fine with that. It made me who I am.

When playing sports, I could be myself and no judgment followed. It was my escape from the real world. Sports have the beauty to make barriers fall, and bring people together despite where they come from or the background they have.

Sports have much more meaning than just a game, they’re something that many cannot explain, and more often than not wild things happen. For that moment in time, people remember where they were when it happened. They have the power to turn lives around and create meaning for that individual. After sports came to an end for me, it was writing. Writing about sports gave me a whole new love. A love I didn’t even know existed. It allowed me to express myself, my true self in words. It is also the reason I am in school, at my dream school, The University of Alabama.

Whether it’s a 60-minute game of football or a 40-minute game of basketball, one thing is certain: the impact that time has on you. Those moments create electric cheers, loud screams, and a sense of adrenaline that sticks with you.

It is crazy if you think about it, how a simple game can create so much love and hate. It is a relationship that can get confusing but so memorable at times. It opened so many gateways for myself, that allowed me to open up in a way without them would be impossible. Through all the struggles, obstacles, and roadblocks I found my way to success in sports.

I may have cerebral palsy, I may have to work harder for things that come easy to most, but one thing is certain, sports allow me to express myself in a way nothing else does. In sports, it doesn’t matter what size, shape, or race you are. They create moments that last a lifetime, and memories that stand still in time.

Sports create friendships, family type relationships that people just want to be a part of.

Sports suck people in, and it’s amazing.

Sports are one of a kind, unlike anything else.