LYD "Impossible is Nothing"

At age 4 I was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) which is a type of Autism on the Spectrum. A year later doctors and specialists told my parents in a meeting that would change their lives and mine forever. They told my family I would barely graduate from high school, I would never become and athlete, everyone in my family played college athletics. They said I would have NO chance at graduating from college let alone set foot on a college campus anywhere in the Country. And the last thing they said was eventually whenever I was done with school I was going to be placed into a group home with other autistic children like myself for the rest of my life. I was told this story my freshman year of high school. This became my motivational to prove these people and other doubters I had in my life wrong. I worked hard at what I did from sports, my social life , but more importantly school because I really struggled on tests and a lot of language like verbs, non verbal, sarcasm, and idioms. And I had a lot of supports from my close friends, my community and my family because as a kid I dealt with bullying and being made fun of because of my Autism. I graduate from Okemos High School on time, I earned a full ride scholarship to Grand Valley State for basketball. Things didn't work out there because some of my coaches didn't understand me, so I decided to transfer to the one place where I always dreamed of playing at, and that was for Coach Tom Izzo and his basketball program at Michigan State. I walked on for two years, earned a full-ride scholarship my Senior year, won two Big Ten Championships, a Big Ten Tournament Title and went to a Final Four. But aside from all of that though, I did the one thing that people said I had no chance of doing....and that was on May 5th 2012 I walked across the stage in the Breslin Center and got my college degree in hand. To this day it's the proudest moment of my life and always will be. Today I am a motivational speaker going around the country and telling my story of hope, inspiration, as well as doing Anti-Bullying campaigns, where I have had multiple stories where bullies have gone up to their victims after I've presented and have apologize to them. My slogan is LYD which stands for Live Your Dreams because my message to people every where is to never give up on anything or anyone. To know that there's hope every step you take and in every place that you come upon on. More importantly though to live your dreams not matter what the circumstances are. LYD  by Anthony.