Everything Changed...
In March of 2020, I had no job, no prospects, and $70,000 of debt. The last few months of my 20-year hockey career was cancelled, I was stuck in my parent’s basement at 26 years old, and I was infected with COVID-19. March of 2020 was not a great month. Actually, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Let’s rewind the clock and start from the beginning.
It All Started With Big Dreams
Since I was 5 years old, all I ever wanted to do was play pro hockey. But during the last five years of my minor hockey career, from age 13 to 17, I was cut from all ten rep teams I tried out for, having my heart-broken on the very last day of tryouts eight times. Two years later, I entered my final year of junior eligibility (my last chance to be recruited for college) with nowhere to play. No team in the entire country – about 130 Jr. A teams across Canada – would take me.
Yet that same year, after finally finding a team, I was nominated for Top Goaltender and Top Player in the entire country, comprising of those same 130 teams. Then in college, I went on to become an NCAA National Champion and CoSIDA Academic All-American of the year in the at-large category, ranking #1 of approximately 80,000 eligible student-athletes [1]. And finally, in March of 2018, my dreams came true: I made my pro debut with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL.
But it wasn’t a fairy tale ending. In the Fall of 2018, I was cut through a text message and ghosted by the coach on the third day of my first pro camp. I had no team, no career, no prospects, and a lot of debt and uncertainty. However, I never quit, and once again, I found a new team and enjoyed two full seasons of pro hockey, living out my childhood dream.
Outside of hockey, I had other challenges growing up. Since high school, I have suffered high levels of OCD and anxiety, often leaving me stressed, unfulfilled, and borderline depressed in some instances. I would frequently have anxiety attacks lasting hours that would essentially paralyze me, becoming completely incapable of focusing or doing anything other than ruminating in an eternal mental feedback loop.
But I was confident, and perhaps more importantly, stubborn. Despite studying engineering and being a varsity athlete, I told my roommate in the first week of my freshman year that I was going to graduate Valedictorian. Flash forward, I graduated in 2018 as the Norwich University Valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA while serving as president of the engineering honor society, vice-president of the mechanical engineering honor society, founder and president of a consulting club, member of our investment club. That year, I also secured a full-time offer to join a trillion dollar bank in New York City and was part of an amazing student team that won a NASA competition for the design of an autonomous solar array for Mars [2, 3].
In everything I have pursued in my life, I have been successful. Yet prior to every success, I have failed over and over again. And this takes us to March 2020. I was playing pro hockey, had my dream job lined up for the summer, and was ready to take on the world. Then the pandemic happened and I lost everything.
Perhaps my greatest adversity, this was perfect breeding ground for anxiety, yet I emerged the happiest, healthiest, and most productive I have ever been in my entire life. So what changed
The answer is simple: Learning.
Through learning, I transformed my soul and I restructured every aspect of my life: mind, body, and spirit. And I’m happy. And I love my life more than ever.
Inspired by my time at Norwich University and great friends and role models that have dedicated their lives to service, I have found clarity in my life purpose: “To maximize my human potential and empower others to optimize their health, happiness, and performance.”
My objective with Learn II Perform is exactly that, to empower people to improve their lives. It also allows me to be true to my values, by expressing gratitude to those who have inspired and taught me, practice personal self-care and development, and serve others by sharing my knowledge and experiences.
This is just the beginning of my journey, and I am inviting all of you to be a part of it. To learn more, please connect with me, find me on social media, and let’s have a conversation!
References
[2] Atkinson, J. S. & Spears, S. (2018, March 9). Norwich University Crowned Champion of 2018 BIG Idea Engineering Design Challenge. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/langley/norwich-univerisity-crowned-champion-of-2018-big-idea-engineering-design-challenge
[3] 2018 Competition. (2018). Big Idea Challenge. Retrieved October 27, 2020 from http://bigidea.nianet.org/past-competition-themes/2018-competition/