Summmeeeeerrrrr!

I am actually really unprepared for summer. Usually I start making lists at the beginning of April, counting down finals until I was free. For whatever reason, this year was different and I just kept my head down, focused and not letting myself think about it.

It may also be because I can't get excited because before I can plan to have fun, I need to find a source of income.. I honestly actually did get on the ball early this year, but there was just nothing interesting out there to be had!! So at this point, I'm done trying to find relative experience and now it's about making money to pay off my mastercard...

So this resulted in re-applying for soccer camp. Great money but doesn't start til July. So in the mean time I'll be trying to get 2 part time jobs. Campus rec, with whom I work with every school year, has their spring/summer stuff that I could do a few nights a week and then I'd need to find something for the morning/afternoon. I live right by a mall, so that will definitely be on my list to check out. I actually kind of really want to work at David's Tea...!! I'll also keep my eye on Kijiji of course.

The only thing that worries me about finding a job (however justified or not, I still worry) is that I'll be gone for about a week in May, for my annual bowling tournament out east (this year is Montreal again).  And it's just because I have to pay rent that any of this is chewing at me. Believe me, it was very difficult not to think about it during exams; I felt guilty for not looking, but I could just not deal with the stress of it.

BUT all this being said, I can finally start thinking about what I want to do this summer, so here's somewhat of a list!

• GET IN SHAPE BEFORE SOCCER. I went for a run this morning and nearly died. My lungs are what worry me, and they are kind of critical for soccer...
• Have a few fire nights with friends and some beers! I FINALLY have a fire pit in my backyard! I've been wanting one for soooo long!! 
• Go camping. Something else I've also wanted to do forever. 
• Volunteer. Every summer I say it, but end up too tired. If everything goes the way I want with jobs, I will probably be more tired than ever, but I want to find a way to do it! I really want some experience in the rehab world!! Or even just other recreational type stuff will do :p
• Buy a bike. I really miss biking, and it would be nice not to have to pay ~90 bucks for a monthly transit pass!
• Spend more time with people on days off. Alone time is good, but I tend to do it too often.

That's all I can think of right now. Just gotta get a job and I'll be all set to go. Trying not to worry about money problems, I'm too young to!

Anything you are looking forward to this summer?

Life and the Future

Now with finals being done, my brain can wander. And it ended up on my future. I've actually had it in the back of my mind for a week or so now, but today I specifically started looking at careers.

As of right now, my plan is to go to grad school at the UofA for occupational therapy. Leading up to it I'll finish up my required 9 classes next year (but will take 10 I'm pretty sure) and then possibly do my practicum right after that. BUT the program only begins in September so I'm not sure if I can do my practicum that late and still be able to apply. So this needs to be figured out at some point next year.

IF I couldn't do grad school right away (which I feel will be the case) then it wouldn't be the end of the world, and maybe I'd try to find something relative to it and get some experience, leading to a good professional reference, and better chances to get it when I could apply. I'm also not 100% sure I want to do it, so it could also be a good thing to see what's out there and see what I can get into. Who knows, maybe I won't even want to do OT after that!

But I had a really interesting conversation with Mike Lake, south Edmonton's MP about after the completion of my degree. He was saying that I should consider going to Ottawa to work, just because there are so many opportunities by being bilingual. One, this is another future possibility, but two, it just really made me see that just because you have a degree in something, doesn't mean you need to do something in that field. I guess I already knew that, but kind of thought that was silly; because what was the point then? But what I am understanding more and more is that the degree shows that you are teachable; that you are an intelligent person and can put in the effort, and you may as well have proved it by doing something you enjoy!  So I guess what I'm getting at, is that even though as I stand right now, I only see a limited amount of possibilities related to my degree, I know that there are a plethora of opportunities waiting for me once I graduate. I just need to figure out what I really want to do and go for it. Mike also gave advice on this: don't give out a million resumes, pick a few you really want and then work hard to get it. Plain and simple.

So it's been exciting realizing I don't have to necessarily worry for when I graduate, and now I know I don't have to be scared about entering the 'real' world. Now the only thing is that I'm still 1.5+ years away from really getting on the tracks of life, and I'm too excited already. I suppose you'd call this growth!

Oh and ps, it's not so random that I had a conversation with an MP, his son has bowled in my bowling league for two years now :p

On The Mend

Ok, it's time to get serious. Being in my field of study it's kind of ridiculous that it's taken me this long to get with it, but my body is broken and I need to fix it. Or else when I'm old, it's going to be baaad.

In grade 12 I sprained my knee quite significantly playing soccer. I did the usual go to physio to get some functionality back and to get back to playing, but by this time I was so done with the whole routine of the home exercises (I've sprained so many ankles and other ailments that required physio) so I didn't really do it at all. Now here I am, 4 years later, and my knee hyperextends like crazy and sometimes it'll even get stuck/locked in hyperextension when I walk and it feels like I will break my knee. It's a really scary feeling and I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often, especially being that I still play soccer...

So there's that. BUT I also experienced another quite significant injury, about a year ago now, with a re-occurrence last July. I honestly have no idea what/how it happened, but I was in a bowling tournament and all of a sudden my left quad gets pulled and it kills. Like I could not walk. I couldn't stretch it out. After a bit it finally went away and then I was seemingly fine.. until July. This time, all I was doing was jogging. I was playing ball with two friends and I was jogging to get the ball and I pulled it again. This time it did not go away and had to do physio for it for quite some time. This time I followed through on the regimen, having learnt my lesson from my knee. But about a week ago I was in physiology lab, and we were doing velocity force stuff. In short, this machine tests your power and torque for your quads and hamstrings. The relationship between the muscles is supposed to be 3:2 (quads:hamstrings). I was the subject and I did it on my left leg, not thinking much of it. After the TA reads the data he asks if I've ever injured my knee. So of course I was like uh yeah, and a quad strain. The data collected was totally funky and basically my ratio was 1:1. Then a few days ago at the gym I was on the quad machine and there was a noticeable difference in the strength in my right and left quads. Usually those are pretty similar, but I just couldn't keep going with my left one.

That leads me to this. I have less than a month left of having "free" gym membership since we're done at the end of the month. I really want to change these issues I have. So it's going to be a lot strength training for my quads and hamstrings, and my calves (for the knee). I'm pretty sure what happened with my knee is that I tore the posterior cruciate ligament, but of course physio's don't use this language because they assume their clients won't understand, but being in physed I think I can kind of tell what most likely the injury was. And he probably didn't mention it either because the PCL is actually not too necessary. You don't need surgery because you can just strengthen the muscles around it to offset it (or at least that's what I am remembering from my sports injuries class, but don't take my word for it). So simply, I just need to get some more strength going on on my left side. Hopefully I can get enough going before I lose my gym privileges, because there's only so much you can do with just your body as equipment.. I'm game with just a little improvement, then just keep in good cardio shape and then get back in September to get to where I want to be. After that it'll be maintenance of those muscles.

Day to day these injuries don't affect me too much, except for the random knee incidences, but if I want to keep playing sports until I have grey hair, I really need to start taking care of my body.