My history & my thoughts in relation to girls and sports
Here it goes… (it’s a long story, read if you want and please, no mean comments! I’m only sharing kindly.)
I wanted to share a page of my history and why I think that it’s important to promote sports & physical activity towards girls from an early age.
I’ve grown up in a little rural area in the North Shore of Montreal. My days consisted to chase kittens and help my family on the farm. I’ll get to the point soon. Living on a farm, my parents were always busy taking care of our cows, it was almost a 24/7 job for both of them. Because of that, we never really got to do family trips or travel very far from home. I’ve grown up in a stable and loving environnement and my parents were (are) always there for me and my brother.
..But sports did not really have an important place in our household and that’s my reality. Surely, it was a question of time and a question of money. Both of my parents never were into sports. I’ve often heard my brother saying that he wanted to play hockey or football, but it did not happen. From a young age, I was making gymnastic anctics for fun (but secretly hoped to take on this sport) and I was also loving the ice. I have never asked to take on a sport, because I knew the answer. I don’t blame my parents and I entirely respect their decision. I then oriented my interest into arts. I’ll always remember the day that I own a nice artistic kit for kids at school because of a contest that I had won.
More or less six years into elementary school…
My brother was choosen on the Basketball of our elementary school. It was nice to see him have fun. It made me want to try it for myself and be part of a team. At that time, I had gained weight. I went to the tryouts of the team and I thought that I gave my 100%, but it was not enough to make the team. All of my friends were on it & they had practise during lunch time and I ended up alone during that time. I’ve felt left out and my young self blamed it on the weight that I had comparated to my friends. It was an hard take at a young age. It kind of drove me away from sports, because at that time I was not good enough. (I now work at that school and it is bringing so many memories, not always good ones.)
I was still not my best self, my friends left me out the first day and I did not know anyone but my brother. So, I learned to make new friends and work through it. My entourage was mainly the artistic crew and my courses turned around art (even if sport was a choice too).
I never really knew that you could loose weight until my third year of high school. That is ridiculous. I tought that the weight that I had would never get lost. After I knew that, I was taking runs with my cat in my fields, everyday. I educated myself on what to do to get better. I danced for fun. I got better, my self confidence was growing. Something happened in the summer of 2007 and it made me stop everything that I was doing.
It only got back after I discovered Tessa and Scott at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games.
They have drawn me back into sports and I am thankful of them because of that. I then got a pair of skates and started to go to the rink any chance that I got. Listening to my music and making turns. I also suscribed myself at the college pool to make some laps and took on some courses that my college was offering. One of course was dance. In university, I was delighted that there was skating courses offered and without a doubt, I got into a beginners class. It was so fun and what a nice way to clear my mind. I was the happiest.
Still today, time is an issue when it comes to working out. Working full time, sometimes it’s hard to exercice regulary, but i’m trying my best to fit a little bit of time to work out or just move. For some it might be easy, but keep in mind that we are all different and live different realities. I always make sure to do a little bit of silly dancing in my kitchen.
To conclude this ‘article’, I want to say that I believe that through sport, we learn how to win, how to loose and how to be ok with loosing. We learn to make friends, to work as a team through adversity and through success. We also learn to create something for ourself,to get better, to be confident, to make choices and to push our personnal boundaries. Sports is one of the best life educator and I believe that it should have an important place in the life of girls for all the reasons that I’ve listed above.
I also believe that sport should be a safe place for anyone who decides to practice one and it’s outrageous to see some cases that have happened lately in a lot of sports including gymnastics and figure skating. We have to make this a safe place and we should also provide options for those who don’t necessarely have the funds to practice it.
And that’s my word on that.
I hope that it was a nice read and that it brought some perspective. Don’t get me wrong, they say that we should not regret anything… but one of the only regret that I have is that sports didn’t have an important place in my younger years.
Feel free to reach out and share your story, i’ll be happy to read it !