When kids were kids back in the day and actually wanted to be something in life other than famous, they would say they would want to be a doctor, a firefighter, or even president. Well that wasn’t my case at all. When someone would ask me what I wanted to be, I would say I want to be a professional wrestler. That dream is still with me to this day.

When I was younger, it sucked to have this dream and not being able to tell anyone because I always felt like I would be criticized for it. Keeping it a secret from my parents for a decade was probably the hardest part. Honestly, if it was my decision I wouldn’t be in college right now, but here I am.

I knew I wanted to be a pro wrestler since the moment I saw it on TV. When I saw CM Punk, a former pro wrestler, on WWE television, I was hooked on not only wrestling, but on wanting to make a career out of it. However, I came into a conflict with my older brother.

When 10-year-old me told him that I wanted to be a wrestler, he had told me that he wanted to be a wrestler; however, he had said that if I wanted to be a pro wrestler, he wasn’t going to be a pro wrestler. When he told me that, I felt like I had to give up on my dream just to make him happy.

My brother and I would share an Xbox account, so when I would play a WWE game and create a wrestler, my brother would see it. When he was gone, I would make my own wrestler and use her in some matches, but delete her after. It would suck because I sometimes spent hours on creating my character. For some reason, I just couldn’t give up on wanting to become a wrestler.

Seeing that my brother was slowly losing his passion for wrestling and finding a love for music, I thought that was my ticket to the door. When I was about 13, I admitted to him that I didn’t care whether he wanted to become a wrestler or not, but I wasn’t going to let my dream die and become a wrestler. He surprisingly approved and has been my number one supporter since then.

All through high school, I knew that I was going to go straight to wrestling school. When people would mention the word “college” to me, I would turn the other cheek because I knew I wasn’t going to go to college. It was interesting to see people stress about high school knowing that they were going to go off to some high level college or community college.

It seemed like I had my life all figured out, but reality hit me when my mom noticed that I hadn’t filled out any college application. She asked me if I was going to continue my education after I graduated from high school and I looked at her and told her no.

I knew I had broken her heart. She went on about her tough life and that she didn’t move to America for me to waste my life. She gave me the choice of either finding a job before the next academic school year started (Fall 2016), apply for college, or she was going to kick me out of the house. She was not bluffing.

Next thing you know, I filled out my application to BC. Even though I have fallen in love with my major of Journalism and want to become a broadcast journalist, my heart is still with being a pro wrestler. Last year, my mother actually gave me permission to pursue my dream, however she was worried about the “long drive” from Bakersfield to Los Angeles, so she told me no again.

Knowing that she approves of it though makes me work harder for my goal. My last message is if you want to pursue something that might sound insane. Do it. It doesn’t matter about the time it takes, as long as you get to your destination it will make it all worth it. As Daniel Bryan said it best, “if you fight for your dreams, your dreams will fight for you.”