Who is AD Durr? Allow me to reintroduce myself.

I’m a person who is truthful and who doesn’t care about what people think about themselves. But this wasn’t always the case.

I used to care way too much about what people thought and said about me because I wanted to be liked by everybody. But as I began to find myself, not everybody could see what I was trying to say, so a lot of people were disrespectful toward me because of it. I had to put in work with my family and therapist to really dig deep and figure out who I am, but also understand that by voicing that, people are gonna be disrespectful towards me too. I had to choose between making myself or everybody else happy and ultimately chose myself.

I’ve gone through a lot of peaks and valleys to get here. My battle with long COVID really played a role in that and challenged me as a person. When I was at home for two years, not able to do anything, I feel like God sat me down and forced me to look inward and figure out who I am. I think that’s what really pushed me to identify myself as who I see myself as.

I knew it was time to reintroduce myself to the world in the fall of 2021 when I started to work with my therapist. We talked a lot about “Who am I?” It really made me think about how I’ve always felt that I didn’t always want to be called ‘she’ or ‘her,’ but I never dug deep to really figure out why. So when she asked me that question, I realized I was just going with the flow of things in my personal life. I was like, “Wow.” It came naturally and wasn’t planned in how the conversation took place.

Once that happened, I really understood, “Who cares if people don’t like that? Who cares if people think you’re different or weird? This is for your comfort.” That’s what really helped me turn a corner and know that it’s okay to be me, even if it’s not the same as everybody else.

But you don’t figure things out, and then *poof*, everything is great. As I mentioned before, there are peaks and valleys. These last few years have been very challenging for me. But the highs of getting drafted, beating long COVID, and being able to come back home to play and be a part of a franchise that’s genuine, cares about me, and wants the best for me on and off the court, have helped me find my happy place again.

I think my journey has helped people too. I’ve had a ton of people who have come up to me and told me they go by the same pronouns. I’m grateful that my struggles and my challenges can help people out.

If you’re grappling with your identity, my words of advice are to just be you. 

I know it’s hard to do that in this world because it can be really mean, but really just be you. Don’t care about what people think either, because nine times out of ten, what that person thinks about you means nothing. Their validation means nothing. Do what makes YOU happy and live your life for you because years will go by, and you’ll look up and be like, “Damn. Where’d the time go?” 

So live life for you. Be you. Don’t think being yourself is wrong, even if it’s something different than somebody else’s perspective. And just be happy because life is so short, and I feel like we lose sight of that. 

Do what makes you happy, be happy, and smile.

AD Durr