Finishing my senior hockey season and graduating college was filled with mixed emotions. It was somewhere between “oh f*ck… what do I do now?” and a sense of excitement for the next chapter in my life. I didn’t have a plan so I decided to take the summer off to settle into my home city of Toronto and look for a job. Once September rolled around though, I was lost.
Sure I’d found a job and even played in a pick-up hockey league once a week, but other than that all I did was work. I struggled to find a balance between my job and my social life. I treated my new career the same way I did my old sport – I gave it everything I had. I wanted to be the best in the office the way I was on the ice, and I wanted everyone to know it. But I was in a totally new environment, I was starting from the bottom as a beginner again, just going through training. I’d gone from knowing everything and everyone, to knowing nothing and no one and I was on my own to figure out so many new things. It was a tough transition with my old teammates so far away.
In my class year, there were 6 of us; we were nicknamed the Canadian 6 Pack. We did everything together. Freshman year, about two months into our college lives we decided it was a good idea to put on costumes and show up at the coach’s houses unannounced for Halloween. We roped one of the captains into driving us, and we put on as much Canadian gear as we could find. We started at one of the assistant coaches houses, where we knocked on the door about 9 pm. We accidentally scared her to the point she thought someone was trying to play a prank on her. She threw the candy out the door and slammed it in our faces. Next up was the head coach, we showed up to his house and gave him a nice surprise. Him and his wife couldn’t believe their eyes when we rolled out of the SUV decked out in Canada gear. From that moment on, we were known as the Canadian 6 pack, as well as the class that loved dressing up. We showed up to other sporting events in theme to rally the crowds and make a name for ourselves.
Leaving them was difficult. I went back home to start a career, two of the six stayed in the states to work and attend school, one hiked the Appalachian Trail, one went back to school and played CIS hockey, and the other played in the CWHL and trained for the Olympics. We’ve all been extremely busy and living in various places. We haven’t been able to have our weekly dinners or participate in our funny antics. At this point, we’re lucky if we all get to meet up together at once. I’ve learned to value those little meetings or facetimes because they can be few and far between.
In college you’re constantly surrounded by your friends and teammates. It’s a simple text to get dinner or call to go to the library. You’re forced to be together for practice, games, road trips, etc. Everything and everyone you needed was walking distance away on campus. Once those four years end, your friends live in different cities all over the world. You need to learn how to stay in contact with them considering you’re on different time zones and extremely busy. I’ve found maintaining those friendships to be extremely helpful along the way. Your teammates are the ones that went through the same things you did, and are going through the same withdrawals now as you venture into the real world. They can relate better than anyone else and can be one of you biggest resources. I remember having a conversation with one of my classmates about a year after graduation with her new job and how her boss was taking advantage of her; he was demeaning and rude. I was going through a similar situation with my boss; he left me all the work to do, demanded more than he should of me and took advantage of my ambition to move up in the company. We were able to talk through our situations and relate to one another even though we are in completely different fields and countries.
I’m now at the point where I’ve been promoted 4 times in less than two years, joined and excelled at women’s leagues, made new friends, and found new hobbies. I took the approach to work the same as I took to hockey; I used it as my outlet for friends, the motivation and drive to move up in the company and get promoted and to make new connections.
My old teammates helped me as I settled into this next chapter of my life. Despite keeping in touch long distance though, I knew I needed to branch out and make new friends in person. This required me to find a better balance between my work and social life and start putting myself out there. Slowly but surely I started to get out of my rut. I began to try new things and seek out new experiences. I found that I still had “teammates” around me; I just needed to reach out and really begin to connect with them.
