Before creating all this, I was searching for something. I carried this feeling of unfulfillment. Something was telling me there was more, more than what I saw in front of me... and it was right. It all started when I was in high school, during a time when I felt very lost. It seemed like everyone at school knew where they were headed, and I had no clue. I knew college wasn't for me. Deep down, I knew there was something different for me. I just couldn't see it yet. I could only feel it. It was the year 2010, my senior year. My parents wanted me to go to college, and I thought about it a lot. Certain nights, I couldn't even sleep. If there's one thing I've always wanted to do, it's make my parents proud. I was very depressed that year. I didn't know who I was, and I felt the pressure of the world trying to make me into something I didn't want to be. Deep down, that made me very sad because I felt like I was supposed to know what direction my life was going, and I didn't. I'd wonder if I'd ever know.
I remember being afraid to go to my room because that's where my mind had no distractions. It's where I had to face myself, and I didn't know how. I thought there was something clinically wrong with me because my heart would race and I couldn't stop it. The more I wanted it to stop, the faster it'd get. My mind would race and race but to nowhere because the answer didn't exist.I must've asked myself every question a human can possibly ask itself. Why am I here? What am I doing on this planet? Why do I have to be something to feel worthy to others?I don't know. Does anyone know?What do I know? I know I want to be something...Little did I know, I just wanted to be myself. It took me years to understand that. I'm still understanding it now. I remember thinking to myself, everyone seems like they're good at something. What am I good at? I tried many different things, but none seemed to be me.
Then I found art. Art was one of the first things that showed me I could create something that came completely from me. It was the first thing I found myself getting better and better at the more I tried. Eventually, that creativity gave me an idea: What if I put my art on clothing? The light bulb went on.I went straight to the library that day and started researching how to start a brand.I found that it was possible. That's all I needed to know. For the next few weeks, I would skip lunch to research and draw potential logos for the brand. The hardest thing was finding the right name. I knew it was the most important thing. The wayI found the name was by making a list of words. The one thing I was certain of was that I wanted the abbreviation to be A.M. I created a list of about 15 different name combinations and let my classmates vote. Almost all of them voted for "Above.Millions."
After months of research and getting all my logos ready and finalized, I found a local screen printer to help print my clothes. I gave them all the money I had saved up, and we started. They gave me a mock-up of how my T-shirt would look, and I was so proud of it that I put it on the folder I'd carry around school.That mock-up made it real for me, and when my classmates saw it, it made it real for them too. After all those months of working on it, it was finally on the way. They had seen the whole process and wanted to support me, so I started taking pre-orders. The day I received my very first T-shirts, I packaged them up and headed to school to give them to the people who purchased them. I'll never forget how excited everyone was to receive their T-shirt. I SOLD OUT my very first day!That's when I knew I had something. I was at a loss for words. I created something, and the people around me wanted it? I couldn't believe it. From that day on, I knew I didn't want to do anything else for the rest of my life. I wanted to create and see where it would take me. I didn't know it then, but I had found the beginning of me. This is where Dreams & Me began.
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