“My hope is to use my influence and growing national profile to better my hometown. I want to be the bridge that facilitates cooperation, conversation, and understanding between students and local authority figures – a bridge that I was missing when I was their age. That void, subsequently, pushed me down the wrong path. “I want them to know that they are not alone, and that the right path is the best path. They may have been knocked down, but like me, they can get back up, do the right thing, and go the distance, whether in the ring, in the classroom, or in any avenue they wish to pursue.”
