Through depression, anxiety, learning disabilities and medical issues, softball player commits to a D1 school. 

Ashley Bush is seen just as a great softball player and a ray of sunshine. 

However, those close to her know Ashley’s struggles on and off the field. She was diagnosed with dyslexia and decoding issues in second grade and always struggled with reading and writing. 

Ashley worked with a tutor through almost all of elementary school to overcome her learning disability. 

“To this day, I don’t let my learning disability get the best of me. I made honor roll for all of middle school and Principal List for all of high school. I am now going into one of the top school in Virginia with a 3.9 GPA.” 

Ashley hit home runs since the day she stepped on the field. 

However, the sport she was best at, led to hiding emotions and soon later depression and anxiety.

“Softball players don’t cry.” 

After a long time, she decided to speak up and get help before the problem worsened. 

This is where Ashley’s story takes a turn. 

During one night, she started feeling sick and losing feeling in her legs. She called her loving girlfriend about her legs and slowly lost the ability to talk whilst on the phone. She soon got her parents attention and they rushed her to the hospital where she lost all ability to walk, see or talk. Each day she would have more and more seizures, in one day she had eight. Finally, the doctor found that her antidepressants were the root of her seizures since her body didn’t know how to react to feeling emotion. 

Throughout everything, Ashley has persevered to become a softball star on her way to JMU with a healthy and healing relationship between her mind and body.