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Can you tell me the story of your prior success, challenges, and major responsibilities?
My greatest prior successes in life have all come from playing hockey. What started as a childhood dream eventually turned into an 18 year endeavor on the ice which included traveling the world playing with professionals and getting recruited by a Division One college hockey team to play on scholarship. From a young age I knew I loved playing hockey, but I never thought anything would come of it. The percentage of players who went pro was not in my favor, but I didn’t let that stop me. Confidence and determination are values that were instilled in me early on by my coaches and my teammates, which I utilized as their captain and their leader to always help the team out in any way possible.
I wore my heart on my skates every time that I entered the rink and worked extremely hard to become the player that I always knew I could be. I realized all of my dreams playing hockey, but it wasn’t until I took a step back from the sport that I was able to fully understand and put my successes, my accolades and all of my school records into perspective in a way that I could see the impact to which it all was having on my life.
No success story comes without a challenge, and I undoubtedly faced a lot of them throughout the course of my hockey career. Being a standout player and always appearing in the spotlight was only fun for so long. After a certain point, I started second-guessing myself and didn’t trust my abilities to perform on the stage I had excelled on for so many years. I thought playing hockey and getting the opportunity to go to school and play for a good team was everything I always wanted, but soon enough I felt pushed into a corner.
Since realizing my dreams and accomplishing my goals in hockey, I suddenly lost the urge to continue on with the sport. It’s as if that chapter in my life came to an end and I was tenuously waiting for the next adventure to begin. But challenges are what inspire success, and it’s the challenges that we face in life that ultimately define our fate.
Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?
A time I almost gave up was when my relationship with my past girlfriend ended. It crushed me and brought me to a deeper and darker place than I’ve ever been to before. I wanted to stop and to get rid of everything I was doing because I just didn’t see a purpose in life anymore. It was harrowing and traumatic, and I honestly didn’t see myself coming out of it with any positive thoughts or motivation to continue working towards my goals. But I knew that if I let one breakup define the rest of my life I would
be on pace towards a horrific and irreparable downfall that I’d eventually regret. I wasn’t about to let something so minuscule and unimportant consume what I had worked so hard up until that point to achieve. I knew that I had to adapt to the changes I was facing and decided it would be best to just own my feelings and use them to help me become a better person. Instead of lamenting on my pitfalls, I used my newfound confidence to reinforce my existence and my purpose in life and seemingly flipped a switch in my mind that changed everything.
Over time, I developed an optimistic mindset and learned to utilize the support of my family and friends to reassure myself that I was on the right track, and without them I knew none of this would be possible. I believed in myself and my vision more than anything in the world, and at this point in my life I was willing to gamble that it would all pay off for the better.
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