Welcome to phase three! This phase I consider to be the latest/most recent chapter of my life that has brought me to this point today. It includes the past six years of my life where I lived in Calgary Alberta after concluding a dream of mine to get a scholarship to university to continue playing hockey. If you have not yet read, phase one and two of my life I encourage you go back and do so, so you can get the full picture of why I am at the point in my life that I am. Those can be found under the Values tab in “Where it all Began, and Mid Point”. I consider this phase, phase three the time in my life where I really did take a leap, I grew up more then I ever thought imaginable in these six years of life, and I really feel like I found who I was going to be in this part of my life.
As I discussed a lot in phases two, my purpose in life for majority of my life was chasing my dream of playing hockey, I wanted to play at the highest level I could. At the time besides the Olympics the highest level I could get to was University hockey for females. I am happy to say I achieved that dream, I got a scholarship to play hockey for the university of Calgary Dino’s, in my six years playing for the Dino’s (six years thanks to COVID) I got to meet some of my absolute best friends for life. I got to be coached by two Olympic gold medalists. I got opportunities that I never thought imaginable through playing on this team.
I mentioned that I grew up more then I thought possible in this phase of my life, and I think naturally that probably happens a lot to students going off to university. I got to go with my twin sister, we got to experience university together which was the best thing I could have hoped for. It was our first time living on our own without family remotely close by, and it really does force you to grow up a lot, whether you want to or not! There is no way I could go through all the life lessons, the experiences, the highs, the lows, that I went through in these six years, that would require a novel. What I can say here to give some insight is that in my first three years in Calgary, I worried a lot, the adjustment to university was a struggle, I struggled through school to try and figure out what worked for me, I got pretty homesick at certain points, there were a lot of lows I would say in my first few years. I leaned on my sister and my parents a lot to get through it, quitting was never an option, I knew I had to figure it out or just keep struggling through. I obviously did not figure things out over night, and there were some great memories in those first few years. As I reflect back, it was those more difficult years that I probably learned the most! Sometimes struggling for a little bit is not the worst thing, I can reflect back and see that now, in the moment certainly not. It took two about halfway through my third year for me to get a good handle on school, I figured out a way to teach myself that really worked, I started to be more successful in my schooling and as a result everything I did was made more fun! I think because that stress of school had stopped weighing me down and I felt like I could breath again. My last three and a half years in Calgary were filled with just the best times, I let loose and enjoyed my life way more. It was not until my last year, my sixth year that I really felt that stress coming back on near the end. Hockey was coming to an end, the sport that has defined my identity for the last 22 years of my life, I was no longer going to be playing at this high level. My undergrad was ending and I really just had to figure out what was going to be next. For so long what was next was just getting better at hockey, getting stronger, getting faster, that what I could work towards. Not anymore. I got my undergrad degree in Urban Planning, and while I enjoyed my degree and found it very interesting the thought of doing that for my career wasn’t overly appealing. I was doing a lot of soul searching in my sixth year in Calgary and I was doing a lot of reflecting, and I had always thought it would be cool to be a teacher. I just never thought it was a realistic thing. I was not and arguably am not a confident person in school. I was never the smartest in class in high school, and as I have disclosed I struggled a lot in university for a while, so being a teacher felt like an unreachable dream.
I was going into my last semester of school. My degree was finished, I essentially was just taking courses in my sixth year so I would be eligible to play hockey. The plan was going to be to just take easy elective courses so I could just focus on my last season of hockey, I did not need the courses, and that was the mindset. I went home at Christmas before my last semester and it was just eating at me, what was going to be next for me? What was going to be my new purpose in life? I know my personality, and I Know I needed something, a new challenge, a new thing to drive me. I decided that Christmas, I did not tell anyone, I just decided for myself, I am going to go for it, I am going to try and get into a teaching program and become a teacher. For so long it felt unrealistic to me, but it was a challenge, and I needed a challenge so that was I did. I enrolled in courses I would need for the programs I applied to… I needed a math which scared me. I took the courses, I ended up getting an A- in the math class I took which to this day is a big accomplishment for me. I got into two of the three teaching programs I applied to. To be completely honest I chose UNBC because I could live at home for cheap, and the program was the shortest, I could be done in 16 months and that was very appealing to me!
Fast forward, and here I am today. In the process of getting my teaching certification. While I chose the UNBC program mostly for convenience, it has turned out to be a great program. I have learned both how I want to be as a teacher, and also how I do not want to be as a teacher, both I consider valuable pieces to learn. I am so very excited to become a teacher, I just want get to it, I have so many ideas, so many dreams and ambitions that I am eager to get rolling. I have to be patient and enjoy the process, enjoy and soak in the learning I am experiencing. To wrap it all up though, there was a point in this phase three of life that I was feeling very lost, I was scared about what was next and it not being good enough, it not being able to replace hockey. I have realized hockey is irreplaceable, and that is ok. I do not need to replace hockey, and I can actually take the lessons I have learned, the person hockey has shaped me to be, and it will actually make me a much better teacher I believe! At this point I am impatiently so ready to get teaching!
