I am the most indecisive person you will ever meet. I switched my career path three
times from the beginning of my grade 12 year until I was done my first year of university. I
never connected my past times to my future. My athletics and family have molded my beliefs
and identity as far as how I concluded teaching was right for me.
My athletics started when I was very young. My family is from McAuley, Manitoba
where we raised over 2200 cow/calf pair, and we live the ranching lifestyle. We are the rip off
version of Yellowstone. Everything was done on horseback. I have a photo of myself as a brand
new baby with my dad on his horse during roundup. By two years old, I was riding on my own.
At two and a half, my parents had me entered in a rodeo. Over the years, I took on major
responsibilities on the ranch like calving and pulling calves. I fed with the tractor, fed using our
team of mules and shredded bales. When I had friends over, I was always looking forward to
teaching them the ropes. I would have them hands on, in hopes to feel the same joy I did. Still,
the dots weren’t connected. I was lucky to always be mounted on great horses that I worked
for. I outgrew my one horse and was ready for a step up to something more competitive. My
dad had a five-year-old (think of that age of horse as a kindergartener in human years) that my
parents thought would be athletic. I brought this horse along into the barrel racing world and
soon enough, we became an unstoppable team. I was 8 years old when I trained this horse.
Soon after when this horse was only nine, he sustained a career ending injury. That is when we
bought Frostn. I was about 13 years old, entering the open age division and going and winning
it by a mile. We took home buckles wherever we went. Our latest notable achievement was
qualifying for the Canadian Cowboys Association finals where we finished fourth in
Canada. In between all of this, I got into training horses with the goal of developing confident
winners that others could enjoy. The last couple years, I decided to begin travelling around to teach barrel racing clinics. It was amazing to see the progression of my students from start to finish when a little hard work and confidence was instilled upon them. Once again, the dots weren’t connected.
My passion for hockey and school sports is not something to leave out either. From the beginning of when I could start school sports, I was in them. Rugby, curling, badminton, volleyball, you name it. Coincidentally, I always seemed to land a captain role. I loved to lead by example and help bring out the best in my team. Nope, no connection. Soon I began to coach the girls JV teams in volleyball and basketball. I liked to teach them something I am passionate about and help them develop a new skill. Coming up with new drills to challenge yet keep them engaged was great. You guessed it, I did not connect the dots! I played AAA hockey as well. I was captain of the Yellowhead Bantam Chiefs and assistant captain of the midget team my grade 11 year. I loved that sport and was taught so many life lessons by it. Nothing ever came easy, and the only way it did was if you worked your butt off for it. I began attending younger age practices to bring drills in and help them out with some skills. The smiles on their tiny faces were priceless when they learnt to master something too. Still wasn’t connecting any dots. These sports taught me to face my fears and strive to be better than the last day for not only you, but your team mates.
I was lucky enough to have a teacher that made calculus so enjoyable. Her name was Mrs. Tapp. The reason I liked it so much was because she gave us choices. Couldn’t master word problems? Try an applied question. Couldn’t quite figure out the missing part to an equation? Model it on desmos. For me and my classmates, having that choice was so important. It taught us to fully understand a concept when we couldn’t quite piece a problem together. Goes to show that not everyone learns the same, and that is completely fine. Also, these classes for me were web-based where we got to meet over zoom and she did travel to our school when time allowed. This meant having access to resources online incase we forgot something at school, or it was misplaced. It was nice to have the accessibility we did and made it a lot easier to keep track of due dates. A big aspect of todays struggle in students is their mental health. Just having the schoolwork that much more available was a complete relief from your shoulders. We felt looked after and cared for as students and her teaching methods is something I will always admire and cherish.
Up until this year, nothing I was pursuing in my post secondary studies felt completely
right to me. My teachers always told me I could go and become a doctor or vet. Finally, I sat
down and thought, “what am I good at doing that I really enjoy?” I connected the dots.
Everything that mattered most to me in my life fell back on teaching, and my core values also
connected to them. Work hard, always learn, and be a bit better than you were yesterday.
When I got the email saying I was accepted into secondary education at the University of
Regina, it felt like I could finally breathe. I had no second guesses as leadership and teaching
came so natural to me. I have countless people to thank for pushing me and allowing me to be
that teacher for them in their lives, even while it was outside of the classroom. I know I will
continue to change, but for now I am content where I am in the present. I cannot wait to share
everything I have learnt so far and help out future students with what values I have, and the
ones I will adopt in the future.