1. ALWAYS BE YOUR OWN CHEERLEADER

I know that I was so lucky to have my family believe in me. But even if you feel like you don’t have a solid support system around you, I want you to know that you can find a way to do what you love.

Your parents, guardians, siblings, friends, teachers are all around you, there for you to turn to if you need help.

And if you don’t feel like you have a group of cheerleaders around you telling you that you can do anything, I want you to be your own best cheerleader. You are the single most important cheerleader that you will have in your life. I want you to believe that you can do anything.

 I want you to love yourself.  I want you to never feel alone in feeling different.

2. BE BRAVE AND LEARN TO TAKE RISKS

When I was starting out on my football journey, I was too scared to take risks. But if you don’t take risks, push yourself to try or do something that might not work, then you’ll not perform at your best. You will be holding back from trying things that could improve your performance.

Think about it – would you want to live your life going along in a straight line, where nothing really bad ever happens but nothing outstanding happens? Or would you rather be travelling along a wavy line, where there are high points and low points, but the lows make the highs all the sweeter?

Learning to play without fear, trusting my instincts and taking risks has been so important to me getting better, both as a football player and as a person.

Yes, a risky pass might not get to where I want it to go. I could fail.

But if it does work out, the rewards are worth the risk.

4. WORK TOGETHER AS A TEAM

We are all leaders, even if you don’t wear a captain’s armband. And as a leader, you need to listen to and trust yourself.

You need to be yourself and learn from people around you, rather than try to be someone else. You are in charge of your own life, your own journey, and how you treat people on that journey.

You can decide to take on responsibility and help to lift others up the way you want to be lifted up, and you don’t need a title to be able to do that.

I’m trying to do that as a captain, but I tried before as a member of the team too. You can act like a captain in all your relationships, whether that’s at home or school, by helping those around you to be the best versions of themselves.