Life / Leisure Pictorial

I am SO sorry I’ve been so inactive, they don’t call it an intensive program for no reason. 2 weeks into my RT program, and I’m beyond stressed.

HOWEVER I’m happy to be able to share with you something I’ve been working on for an assignment for class.

We were instructed to create a 5 minute presentation which highlights some of your recreational accomplishments, long term goals, and how recreation has shaped you as a person.

This is my life pictorial!

I picked up a basketball for the first time when I was 4 years old. I played on a team with all boys for my first year in organized basketball. When I finally got the chance to play in a girls league I was BOOed out of the league by butt hurt basketball moms who’s girls obviously couldn’t keep up 😉

That’s when I was introduced to rep, which led me to playing basketball in highschool then eventually getting an athletic scholarship to a university in my home town.

I played basketball for 19 out of 23 years of my life. It would be quite awful if I had nothing to show for it. So here’s a few of my accomplishments in my basketball career.

I worked for my city’s Horticulture team for two summers! We planted (and mostly weeded), I got to ride a tractor, make some dope ass friends, but most importantly give back to the community through my work.

The middle picture above was taken outside of City Hall. Here we grow vegetables and deliver them to organizations that support people who don’t have the financial ability to purchase fresh and healthy food.

A life changing event that occurred in my life was when I decided to attend Redeemer University. When I was first approached by the basketball coach after one of my highschool games I had actually never heard of the place. Which I later found out was only 10 minutes from my house.

Redeemer is a private Christian school, and I am definitely not Christian. Before I attended Redeemer I was going through a lot emotionally, and I acted out a lot. Redeemer made me smarten up VERY quickly.

I also decided to live on residence first year, which was a pretty wild experience. I lived in a townhouse style dorm with 7 VERY Christian girls.

Something included with living in Residence at my university was a mandatory one hour devotion with your dorm mates. For those who don’t know what that means, you basically whip out your bibles and talk about everything God.

I honestly hated this so much, and I feel bad saying that because I know how hard my dorm mates tried to help me improve my faith.

So this was really hard for me as I felt I couldn’t connect with them for the first few months of living there.

I really don’t talk to any of these girls anymore but I am so happy I had them for my first year as I transitioned to a Christian institution.

I’ve suffered 4 concussions over my basketball career. I mean realistically any athlete has had more then that, but mine got progressively worse after each hit. My last concussion was on January 1, 2016 (Happy New Year) and that knocked me on my ass for eight months. This really tested me emotionally and physically as I basically had to live in darkness for almost a year.

I had a bunch of tests done, including an MRI, which was an awful claustrophobic mess in my opinion. But luckily there was no structural damage in my brain. The doctor didn’t exactly give me the “ok” as he suggested it wasn’t safe for me to play. However I decided to play my fourth and final year and was lucky to stay concussion free.

I still have a really hard time with bright lights, and my eyes take much longer to adjust. Also my short term memory is completely out of whack. Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgot what you were supposed to do? That is now my life. 95% of the time I can laugh it off, but the other 5% makes me want to lose my damn mind.

Something I’ve alway wanted to do is to coach basketball. I’ve been apart of the sport for so long, but I’d like to see it from a different perspective.

Another thing I want to do in the future is create and implement a Horticulture therapy program in my town. I also hope to conduct further research on the positive implications that Horticulture can have on any population, specifically those dealing with stress.

Although you didn’t get the in class presentation perspective, I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit more about me. Recreation has been apart of my life forever, and that’s a large reason why I can’t wait to begin my career in Recreational Therapy, and get some hands on experience out in the field.

Thanks for reading,

Blog City Bish

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