Its Your Turn

Being an athletic therapist is not just fixing physical injuries. You really learn to connect with people, get to know them on a personal level, and become invested in their well being. Your heart breaks when theirs does and their success makes your heart burst like nothing else. On the flip side of caring for everyone else, it can definitely feel like there may not be someone who has your back. Until it smacks you right in the face.

I have always been big on talking out your problems - with everyone else. For me, I have a very hard time sharing and opening up. But when it comes to helping others, I always like them to know that they can talk to me about anything and when I see someone is upset, I try and give them a safe space to vent or whatever they need.

I remember being upset about the lack of support from our administrators at school on a medical level. It was late October/early November - the craziest time of the year for us! It always overwhelms me and things on that particular day had been tough. I was visibly upset and walked by one of my male basketball players. He stopped me in the hallway and asked what was wrong. Being as stubborn as I am, I walked away with "I'm fine". He jumped in front of me, grabbed my arm and said, "no, that's not how it works. Tell me what's wrong." I ripped my arm from his hand, tears welling up in my eyes, but before I could say anything, he stepped up with "hey, you always make us talk to you. And you do it because you care about us. Sometimes, it's our turn to take care of you. Lets go have a chat."

That was one of the most profound moments for me. To realize the goodness in the world and know that it's okay to express emotion. To know that the people you care about, care about you and your happiness. To know that it's okay not be strong all the time, that when you can't hold yourself up, there is someone willing to do it for you.

Defining Self Care

Care on it's own is defined as the provision of what is necessary for health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone of something. For a long time now, care has meant looking after everyone else; making sure everyone else is happy. If that was the case, then things were good. I've recently taken a step back and looked at what happy & healthy means to me - and it wasn't the picture I was looking at.

At the beginning of August, I told myself I needed to make a change. I wanted to start taking care of myself again. I'd been very frustrated with things that were happening at work and in turn, let myself slide into a little bit of a funk. One of the things I needed to do was start to let things go. Stop holding that grudge. Stop letting things that were out of my control bother me. And with that - start saying no to the things that I did have control over. This was huge for me. I've been happier and saying "no" has led to more time for things that matter to me.

As cheesy as it sounds, I bought a FitBit for motivation. I have a bunch of girlfriends who have one as well, and we challenge each other to the Work Week Hustle or the Weekend Warrior. I'm a pretty competitive person so that helps to push me hard to win!  Part of the app is also tracking how much water you drink. I can be bad for that! Realizing at the end of the day that the waterbottle I started my day with is still 3/4 full. My goal has been to stop and take a sip in between each client (athlete) that I see. It's not going to kill them or make me super behind to take a quick drink. I also started going to the gym and it helps to have those friendly faces who go at the same time to keep you accountable.

With all of those things coming into play, it helped me start to change the rest of my lifestyle - I started to eat better and get to sleep earlier. I wake up either before my alarm or when my alarm goes off, not 5 snoozes later! I'm also a lot less guilty when I mess up - miss a day at the gym or have pizza for dinner. Balance is key, and I don't feel bad about that anymore or let it mess up all my hard work! You just jump back on the wagon and keep going :)

My Postcard

Although this may not be your typical image when you think of what a postcard should look like, this image speaks to me in so many different ways. I didn’t start my education thinking that the way I wanted to help people was to teach. I started university with the desire to help people, but not really knowing how. Until I discovered Athletic Therapy which seemed to be a perfect fit. As time went on, I realized that as an athletic therapist, I didn’t just help people by treating their injuries. I became a friend, a teacher, a confidant, a counsellor, someone who listens and is trusted.

I didn’t realize it- but I am constantly teaching in my own way. I have student trainers that work for me, clinic volunteers that I supervise, and practicum students that I mentor. This image illustrates such a large part of who I am and what I do. I am extremely passionate about teaching all of my students, and my athletes as well. When I get a text or an email from a past student telling me which postgrad program they’ve gotten in to and seeing the excitement that radiates from them! Knowing that I was able to contribute to the big picture.

Which brings me to what really animates me – helping others to see the big picture. The big picture in my case is the human body. How everything is connected and how it all works together. A knee injury is very rarely “just a knee injury” and my approach is to always look “upstream, downstream”. I want to learn how to teach this for all different kinds of learners. Those who need more hands on learning (which was definitely me), visual learning, or a combination.

I am a small town girl from a VERY small town in northern Manitoba. 800 people when the mine wasn't doing so well and gold was low; 1200 people when things were "booming"! People knew who you were, who your family was, and your back story. This could be a good and bad thing - small town people are pretty nosy, but you also have a very close knit community that really cares about one another. I remember leaving home at 8am on our bikes and coming home at 8pm, and our parents were never really worried because someone would feed us, as they had done with neighbourhood kids many times. 

I grew up playing every sport because in a town that size, you didn't really have a choice! If you didn't play, we didn't have a team. I had seen a few injuries through sports, but we didn't have a physio or AT or anything in town, and I had no idea there was a thing called "rehab". I broke my ankle in grade 11 (with my dad in the stands yelling "walk it off!") and when I got my cast off, the doc said, "alright, get back to it!" Which led me in grade 12, to decide that yes, I was going to school, and I was going to do something to help people! But not a nurse... so what? 

I was working out in the gym at the University of Manitoba, and I saw a young man stretching out another young man. Turned out that John was the student therapist for the men's hockey team and he was stretching out one of his athletes. We started chatting and he gave me the name of the program director. One conversation with her and I knew - this is what I want to do. 

They don't teach you in school the full spec of what an athletic therapist is. Sure we treat you, make you feel better, rehab your injuries... but we become your confidant, someone who pushes you to your limits, provides trust & a safe haven, your counsellor, the person you need to hate when things are really that bad, and eventually, your friend. There are some days that it is so emotionally draining that I think "what am I doing? I could easily get a 9-5 and leave work at work". But then there are some days, when you take a look around and see the determination, relentlessness, and the desire to succeed and it actually blows your mind! They teach me as much as I teach them. 

This is why I applied to the HEAL program. I want to keep teaching and keep inspiring and being there for people. I want to push my students and help them succeed, to learn to have faith in themselves as I have faith in them. But also to challenge myself, push myself out of my comfort zone, and learn to have the faith in myself that they all have in me.