From learning to row, to completing a degree in kinesiology – my journey to working at Acacia
At the end of tenth grade, a friend brought me to “Bring a Friend to Rowing Day” at our local rowing club. I instantly loved everything about it – being on the water, the cognitive focus required to execute the stroke (and not go for an unplanned swim), and the full body movement. I spent the following months learning to row with my friends, and I was totally hooked. By the end of that summer, I was up to practicing multiple times per week and looking ahead to joining in on early morning practices in the fall. That year went by quickly, full of new friendships, lots of regattas, and countless kilometers on the water. By the end of the following spring, our coach decided we would send a crew to the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, in St. Catharines, Ontario. This was followed with even more training and by the end of my first year of rowing, I was able to race in a single at perhaps the most prestigious regatta in North America.
This experience fuelled my desire to compete more, and my friend and I set our sets on the Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association Championships the following June, at the end of our Grade 12 year. Fast forward to that regatta and we ended up with a hard-fought second place in the senior lightweight women’s double. This cemented our paths forward in rowing, and we both went off to university rowing programs in the fall. I was planning a future as a lawyer, with dreams of doing athlete representation, so I settled on a sociology degree to pave the way to law school.
Unfortunately, this dream was short-lived. Later that fall, I dislocated my shoulder… again
Now this is where my relationship with sport began to falter. My first year at UVic was incredibly difficult, both emotionally and physically. The transition to school and away from my family and friends was hard. I was also not enjoying my courses. And most of all my body couldn’t seem to hold up to the level of activity I was asking of it – I was constantly riddled with sickness and injury, and to cap it off, I badly dislocated my shoulder surfing during spring final exams.
However, I was committed to a future with rowing in it, so I attended regular physiotherapy and returned to my home club, where I began training again (at first in a sling on a stationary bike, then on my road bike, and then back in a boat). I also thankfully had a job to return to as a rowing coach at this club and took great joy in spending time with my friends and teaching others.
At this time, I had a friend who was studying kinesiology at UVic, and the stuff she was learning about sounded so interesting. I decided for that fall semester I would switch over some of my courses to be human anatomy and physiology, and hopefully enjoy school again and explore this new area. I also started back with the women’s rowing team and was more determined than ever to make it through the year with the team successfully, and healthily. Unfortunately, this dream was short-lived. Later that fall, I dislocated my shoulder… again. At this point I decided I needed more dedicated rehab time for my shoulder, so I took a leave of absence for the upcoming spring. I diligently did my physio exercises and started riding my bike a lot. I dove deep into school and was loving everything I was learning. At this point, I decided I wanted to apply for admission to the kinesiology program for the following year and have all my classes surround this great new world of exercise science.
Armed with everything I was learning, I decided I was going to give rowing one more chance. I successfully made it through our end of summer training camp, but ultimately decided that it had come time to close out my university rowing journey. I was finally in a spot where I was content to retire from competitive sport, knowing all the friendships I had made, and the skills I had learned, I would take with me outside of the boathouse. I was incredibly lucky to choose to retire at the same time as my now best friend, so I had an in-built training partner for all our post-rowing adventures. Together since leaving rowing, we have ridden our bicycles to some wild places, had fun in the gym, and tried a bunch of different kinds of exercise we previously never had time for; but most of all, we began to enjoy movement again, on our own terms.
Around this time, after many repeated dislocations, and ongoing dysfunction in my body, a practitioner I was seeing let me know I might be experiencing symptoms related to a hypermobility condition. This ensuing diagnosis journey encouraged me even more that I had made the right choice to transfer into kinesiology. I felt empowered with that I was learning in my classes, and was able to use my knowledge to help understand and manage my symptoms. After much research, and many years of different appointments, it was finally concluded that I likely have Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder – an umbrella disorder that encapsulates almost all the health challenges I had experienced over the last 7 years. Over this experience, I realized I wanted to continue learning to help more people better understand their bodies. However, after a long undergrad experience, I knew I needed to take some time off before jumping right back into a master’s program.
Now to wrap up this story. Last fall, I joined Acacia Health as a Patient Care Coordinator. Around this time, Acacia’s kinesiologist, Emma Watt, was beginning to plan the shift into her counselling practice. I was offered the opportunity work alongside Emma during this transition, and I learned so much from her mentorship. As of this August, I have started seeing clients on my own, and I am very excited to build my practice in this amazing clinic, surrounded by practitioners I feel very grateful to call colleagues.
