When I was in a foster home for eight years, I had a rough life. My foster mom would always put me down because of my disability and didn't think I could do things for myself.
I basically had to learn on my own to prove to my maternal mom and to myself that there's no obstacle that can stop me from doing what I love to do.
People said I couldn't pitch for my softball team. They didn't think I could pitch very well because I only have the use of my right hand. I throw the pitch than have to quickly put the glove on the same hand so I can catch the ball.
It hurts me a lot inside when people tell me I can't do this or that because of your disability. I don't listen to that. I do what I think I can do to the best of my ability.
It took a lot of hard times and practice to get used to pitching than putting the glove on one hand. When someone says I can't pitch, or I can't run, I go ahead and motivate myself to do that to show them that I can do everything that they said I can't do.
It feels wonderful to pitch on a winning softball team. It feels even better to do the things that people told me I never could.
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and the Special Olympics World Games Los Angeles 2015 in conjunction with the What's One Thing campaign. In this series six professional and Special Olympics athletes tell a story about a time in their lives when they were told they couldn't, but didn't listen and chased their dreams anyway. To learn more about the World Games coming to Los Angeles in 2015, visit here. To read all posts in the series, visit here.