After graduating from the National Sports Academy in 2006 I didn't take the normal route to college. Most students after they graduate move on to college and pursue there education. As for me, well I took two years off to focus on just playing hockey. I started off my junior career playing hockey for the NH Jr. Monarchs. I then made two more stops throughout my two years after high school. I was in Cornwall, Ontario and Boston, Massachusetts. I get questions all the time like " aren't you upset your friends will graduate two years before you?" or " why waste your time playing hockey get an education and move on." See these people don't understand the passion, commitment, dedication and time put into the game of hockey. It's been my life for such a long time I cant see life without a stick in my hands and skates on my feet. People who can't respect the dedication level an athlete puts into there sport is mind boggling to me. When everyone else focus on work and hanging out with friends we have to take that extra time in the day to work out or practice. At times it gets unbearable and I hate it. It's the only thing I know where one night after a tough loss you think the world is over and the next night your so high on life because of a huge victory.
I know that I took the road less traveled to get to where I am today, and you know what, I would change it for the world. There are days when I wake up and wonder what it would have been like, how different my life would have been if I didn't go to open skating when I was four years old? where would I be today? Would I have chosen a different sport or would I have chosen a different career path? I don't know, but I'm also curious to what that would be. It's great to be here at Cortland with other freshman hockey players who also took anywhere from 2-4 years off from high school to do what I did. You cant find people like that on any ordinary day, but to be here and be with all these great players is awesome.
I hope my time off will help me here at school, and at the same time push me to strive harder to do my best everyday.
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5 comments:
your a pretty good writer there rocher, and i wish i did what you did actually, but i was a smart kid in high school and got a scholarship for academics to Potsdam so instead of pursuing my dream of continuing with junior hockey i went to college instead. i completely understand where you are coming from and i know how much you had to sacrifice. tryouts are gonna be fun, you know when we are lifting on wed and practice and all that? that mcdonald place is sketchy cuz their hours are all over the place and i wanna play again tommorow night
and the adks is where its at you were lucky to go to nsa, that place is awesome and i absolutely love lake placid. im off of exit 25 on the northway and to get to lp i go to exit 30 just to give you perspective of where im from
Best three years of my life man. Now we have to learn, awesome! Cool description of your hockey career up till now.
that's awesome to do what you did. it takes a lot to take some years off highschool to play hockey. i've actually never heard of anyone doing that before so its cool to know you can do that. you must be pretty sick at hockey, good luck on the team this year!
I think its pretty awesome that you didn't listen to what everyone was telling you to do. You did what you had a passion for and thats all that matters. Rock on man.
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