Truth is, I’m a work horse, or a race horse to be precise, but one that has been chasing her dreams. Just like a horse has a stable that it goes back to everyday after training, I see the routine of life as a university student as the stable of institutional confinement. I wake up go to class, work, train, eat, sleep and the cycle continues. The end goal? A piece of paper worth years of invested time, refining short term memory, procrastination and how to stay awake on tea (coffee just makes me crash) with no hours of sleep. Sounds like a dreadful process right? As true as some of these nightmares are to the average university student, it’s not always as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
How did I get the most out of my experience?
Well, over the past couple of years during my years of “institutional confinement”, if there’s a valuable trait I can take away from my experience, it’s that everything I’ve always wanted was always one step out of my comfort zone. Whether it was from the first day of walking into the very intimidating weight room and running away scared and then coming back with a new found confidence and attitude towards strength training and tackling pbs week after week to chasing opportunities and pbs on the track and in life. From not having picked up a single weight in my lifetime growing up, coming into varsity athletics was a very intimidating process. Moreover, coming into a weight room and being tested on my max squat, having never squatted in my life sent me running in the opposite direction. Truth is, I didn’t come back to that weight room in a while after that experience, not one weight session attended while I was on that rugby team in my first year. However, with the change of environments and a new atmosphere having joined the track team and with a strong passion for sprinting, I started to pursue strength training slowly but surely. If there was one thing I loved about sprinting, it was pushing past my limits and surely I was able to apply that philosophy in the weight room. I was no longer that scared girl who was afraid being in an enclosed box we call the High Performance Area, but it became my home. I never missed a session and I was eager to crush my pbs and venture into the world of strength and conditioning.
So what did I do?
Well, I applied for an internship with Mac Strength and Conditioning. I was a very enthusiastic learner and I wanted answers to my questions as well as to help others adjust to this new lifestyle as a ‘workhorse’ in the weight room. I wanted to help people become comfortable by ironically getting out of their comfort zone as I once did. As I sat in front of the intimidating panel of judges besides the pool of candidates who were eagerly as competitive for the same position I was applying for and me with no previous work or interview experience, I asked myself how on earth did I get here. The answer? I took a leap of faith towards my passion, a leap right out of my comfort zone and that’s exactly how I ended up there. Well, to sum up the interview, it went great, I got the position and I’ve been with the Mac strength and conditioning program for the past 4 years and I learned quite a lot. Things that you could not simply just learn through textbooks or lectures until you applied them, that’s what you call experiential learning. Truth, or somewhere along the lines of DJ Khaled’s words you would’ve heard something like, “they don’t want you to learn but we gon’ learn homie” and “they don’t want you to go looking for these opportunities, but we gon’ seek them”. Truth is, a co-op placement, internship or opportunity to shadow someone is an experience that is not mandatory in some educational institutions and from my internship experience I believe they should be. What use is learning about concepts that you can’t apply in the real world? But, if you really want it, you will seek these opportunities. Looking back on these four years, I can thank my shy and introverted self on taking the leap of faith and believing in myself to chase my dreams. Looking back and reflecting, it was each progressive step that I took out of my comfort zone that added up to where I am and where I am headed now.
I was no longer just a workhorse or just a racehorse trying to run the fastest time, lift the most weight or get the best marks in class. I was a workhorse with passion and direction. That eat, study, train, work, sleep routine transformed into something that did not seem like a conformed process as I looked for opportunity through new experiences. I asked questions, I observed, I thought and I applied. Everyday I engaged in the process and learned something new whether it be through reading articles, watching documentaries and asking questions. Slowly, my passion grew for the field of strength & conditioning and coaching as I started to engage in the process of becoming a lifelong learner. I was no longer simply a race horse who was confined to her stable, but I became a wild stallion as I ventured through the fields and off the track. I formed a new found sense of purpose: Personal and professional growth in pursuit of my passion and desire to learn.
Four years ago, I learned a valuable lesson about leaving my comfort zone and chasing new experiences. At the end of the day, we cannot become what we want to be by what we are. My advice? Take a small step away from your comfort zone everyday because all those steps will eventually add up into something great in the end!
– Sincerely,
A Wild Stallion
AbiSkyhigh 