ABOUT ME

Coming from a background of only soccer athletes, becoming my own person has been an adventure. Breaking down my childhood, unlearning habits while learning and trying to build new ones has been quite the journey to say the least. However, one thing that has continued to propel me into growing and becoming the person I have become, is knowing that I have people supporting me through it all. Even the ones who doubted me have been crucial to my journey. I can truly say that I am falling in love with the person I am coming to be.

Life is not easy; many people say that but can never really tell you why that is - well, let me be the first to tell you why. Through a personal story of simply starting this brand.

When I first had the idea of sharing something with the world, I figured a cool logo and generic message was enough. I designed my logo and created my message, although it was a thoughtful and pretty significant message I figured it was not enough to just release to this judgemental world. As I continued to work and overthink the brand, my dearest friend decided to become my assistant. He began to give me advice, which simply was to stop being a perfectionist and just put it out, the message is clear enough, he would exclaim to me. But I couldn't do it - I could not tell you why, but it just did not feel right. We continued to debate and talk through many sketches and ideas for months, until it was too late. Instead of discussing themes and logos, we began to discuss chemos and health concerns. My dearest friend had been battling a brain cancer called DIPG (Diffuse Intristic Pontine Glioma), it is a type of cancer that is usally developed in children and forms on the brain stem. Like many cancers it does not have a cure and with this type specifically, surgery is not an option.

A month had gone by, and instead of building my brand, I was mourning my best friend.

This brand slowly started to dissolve and just become nonexistent because the person who I needed, and I wanted to be with the most through this exciting and new journey of branding was gone. Two years later and the pain is the same but the cause of this brand has changed. I no longer care to share cool logos, creating an impact in this world has become more of my focus. Although I am very conservative with my personal background; sharing my story and allowing people to discover the person I truly am has become a goal of mine. Simply allowing people the freedom of telling me how terrible their day was just so they can have that safe outlet each day is the type of the person I want to be for my community. Helping others understand that life is so beautiful when you are the light people usually need to see in this world.

V.I.P. Basketball is no longer this cool basketball brand, it is a way to inspire the world to becoming better people. We all struggle with things people on the outside cannot see, so why add that extra burden of negativity to your life? If we want to see change in this world, we need to change it, by first changing ourselves.

Explaining the logo:

Perseverance has been a pillar to growing and being the person and basketball player I am today. However, it was not an easy road, I have had many more failures than I have successes in my life but regardless of the upsets, I continue to move forward and in a positive way. This is the meaning of the arrow in the symbol - apart from it forming the P for perseverance, it declines before rising and continuing to press upwards, just like my life and many others that have shared their stories with me.

Life is about falling, it's what you do next that matters.

V.I.P. Basketball is about making sure we value the small gifts this life presents us each and every day. Being inspirational in each and every way we know, not only for those around us, but for ourselves. And regardless of our downfalls and setbacks, understand that we always have another opportunity to do better and be better. So let us choose that everytime.

VALUE. INSPIRE. PERSEVERE.

VP24 OUT! <3