Who am I? I wish I could tell you, because I am not completely sure myself. I can tell you about some of the experiences I’ve had in my life, I can tell you what I think about or how I act but none of these are who I am. They are how I appear. First off, I am an athlete, or at least I like to pretend to be one. A triple jumper if you will, a passion I have developed over the years until it has become the biggest part of my life—I’ve never had desire as strong as my desire to jump farther. I am a student, currently studying Kinesiology at Dalhousie University and will be entering my third year in the fall of 2012. I am Canadian, having been born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
   I am also somebody who thinks too much which seems to be the cause of much of my troubles. I over think everything—both on the track and in everyday life. I over think so much that I am my own worst enemy—my mind, more than once has been the cause of my downfall. I become rattled easy and more than once I have found myself waking up on competition day completely doubtful of my ability—and with that doubt comes performances below what I am capable of.
   I’m also quiet, usually only speaking when spoken to; I am also extremely socially awkward which lands me in some pretty funny situations sometimes. I’m motivated—ever since I was a kid I wanted to be an athlete, I idolized hockey players and baseball sluggers. I wanted to be just like them one day, on TV and idolized in the same way. That ideology never died, and even today at 19 years of age I still find myself wanted more than anything to be a professional athlete. If I could do nothing else but triple jump for a living I would consider my life perfect. I want to someday make a national team and represent Canada on an international scale. I think when I do reach that goal, putting on that red and white singlet for the first time will be one of the best moments of my life. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get there.
   There was a time in my life, before I considered myself a triple jumper—before I had ever even heard of the triple jump—where I ran distances farther than thirty meters at a time. Sometimes I would even run for as long as half an hour consecutively without stopping. I know it’s a crazy thought, running for that long—distances up to five kilometers long. It started in grade seven.
   During my first year of junior high, I joined the school running club. Before that I had never really ran before… Well of course like most kids I was quite active, I played hockey during the winters and baseball during the summers and I had always been naturally quick but I probably had never ran more than a kilometer at any one time in my life. I remember that the goal of the club was to run a total of 42.2km or the equivalent of one marathon, usually in intervals of 3-4km at a time. And even though I would be huffing and puffing at the end of that 4km and I couldn’t figure out how there could be a sport whose only purpose seemed to be to cause pain, for some strange reason I was hooked.
   The next autumn I joined the cross country team and continued where I had left off the previous spring. When March rolled around I decided to sign up for the track team. I expect my initial reaction was similar to most people’s who sign up for their Junior High track team. I stared at the list of events for a while, not completely sure what half of the events were, and signed up for all of them. The day before the first track meet I was told that I could only enter a maximum of six events so I picked: long jump, triple jump, discus, 800m, 1500m, and the 4x100m relay.
   With no set event I tried my hand at running, jumping and throwing. I had limited success only advancing to the Regional meet for long jump; I believe I jumped 4.50m. Even though I had my strongest performance in the long jump, I developed a passion for the triple jump. Over the summer I started to train by myself almost every day at the local track, doing countless full-out jumps, probably as many as 25-30 jumps a day. Of course I ended up injured; I strained both my hamstrings by September and gave up training for the fall and winter. I didn't jump again until the next spring when school track started up again. While Pb'ing by about two meters I didn't end up advancing past the county meet (I jumped 9.50m which felt unbelievably far at the time). Just the same I felt that I wanted to continue on in the sport. My grade 9 English teacher brought a club to my attention that trained all year round called Chebucto Athletics. 
At this point my goal for the sport was to qualify for provincials in the next season, a seemingly unrealistic goal. I joined the club and trained through the summer struggling through the most basic drills such as fast foot and A skip. I did improve though, and by the end of the season I even got my Pb up to 10.14m. As the summer came to a close my coach mentioned the chance at qualifying for the provincial team next season to go to youth nationals. Considering I would have to jump well over twelve meters I laughed at the idea.
Through the winter I began to comprehend most of the basic drills and by March I even pulled off a meter Pb at 11.14m. I was feeling good coming into the school meets and my goal of making it to the provincial final seemed almost guaranteed. Well not only did I qualify but I also finished third in the triple jump (11.90m) and second in the 4x400m relay. At this point I started to seriously consider making the provincial team but I knew I would have to jump much farther than I ever had before. I ended up finishing second at the selection meet, beating my teammate by 4cm on my sixth jump (12.30m) and was the 37th out of 38 people selected to the team. At the championships I finished twelfth setting a slight Pb at 12.39m. 
With my first full track season coming to a close I set unbelievably high goals for the next season (at the time they seemed reasonable). I vowed to jump 14.00m by the next season to qualify for the 2009 Canada games team. I also wanted to finish top 3 at youth nationals in the next season. Through the fall I was feeling good and I still thought my goals were reasonable. The first impasse that I reached was in January where I tore a ligament in my left knee at practice during a standing triple jump. Originally I was afraid that I might miss the next practice in two days time. Well those two days passed and so did 200 more. As it turned out it didn't heal to a satisfactory level until the end of July, even at the end of August I could feel the after-effects. All through the competition season I received disappointment after disappointment because of my physical condition and mental goals. At the provincial final I jumped 12.20m, receiving a bitter bronze medal. Even at the Canada games trials I feel short of my 14.00m goal jumping 12.50m. 
A week before youth nationals I set a pb of 12.87m and was looking forward to finally breaking 13.00m, I put all my hope into three jumps, one of which became a very emotional. My first jump was 12.58m, the second 12.74m and the third being the most bittersweet of them all. The first two phases felt huge compared to my first two jumps, and the last phase felt good until the landing. My left elbow hit roughly 30cm behind my body and the jump ended up be 12.83m, an effort not even good enough to make the final. I was devastated, each jump had been better then the last and I knew that if I had three final jumps each one would be even farther. After the competition I started to run laps around the warm up field, I ran farther and harder then I had all year. The only thing that went through my mind was “what if?”
   At the time 13 meters seemed to be the biggest deal in the world. I couldn’t imagine being in that exclusive club of people who had broken that barrier and got to see that elusive 13 by their names on the results sheet.  Now looking back, it was really just one baby step along the way. 
   The next spring went a better than the previous had, entering my last year in high-school I felt as though I was growing as a person and maturating as an athlete. At the time I thought that I was learning to control my emotions while jumping but little did I know I was just beginning on my journey and there was no way I could have seen ahead to the seasons that would follow. At the provincial final I finally broke that 13 meter barrier which had been hung over my head for so long with a jump of 13.13m. I slowly progressed through the season until junior nationals where I jumped 13.25m. I was pretty disappointed with the result, it was a personal best but I got it in my head that I was going to blow my previous best out of the water and jump over 13.50m. The rest of the summer was pretty mellow, with no real big meets left. But then, on one late August evening I jumped 13.54m. It was the biggest personal best I had in a while and I couldn’t believe how well I jumped. I think it was the first time and probably the only time in my entire athletic career which I felt I jumped what I was capable of. I was excited for one reason mainly; I knew that 14 meters was soon to follow… How wrong I was.
   The next month, in September of 2010, I started my university track career at Dalhousie University. It was much different than track in high school, the training program was much more structured compared to what I had been used to, we trained six days a week opposed to three and weights became a big focus. I had been doing weights on my own a little bit through my grade 12 year but it was still a big change. I was excited to be part of this new team and my biggest goal was to qualify for the national university championships (CIS championships). The auto qualifying standard was 14.22m which I was determined to reach by the end of the year. At the very least I knew jumping high 13’s would probably qualify.
   Training started great, I felt that I was progressing quickly until one practice when we were doing single-legged hops I landed on the side of my right foot and with a loud crunch turned it over. It swelled up so much right away that everyone around me whispered that they thought it was broken. Luckily it wasn’t, it was only a sprain.
   Looking back, I don’t know how I managed it but somehow I didn’t miss a single practice. The next day I was back, hobbling around at a slow jog. Although I couldn’t do much at least I was still able to train. Then, three weeks later, I tried to do a set of hurdle hops to prove to myself that I was healthy and CRACK, I landed on the side of my left ankle and sprained that one nearly as badly. So there I was with two sprained ankles and my dreams shattered. My initial thought was that I may never jump again but luckily that wasn’t true.
   I managed to heal up well enough to compete by December. I opened up the season with a 13.54m jump, tying my personal best. I was pretty excited that if nothing else I was still able to jump. The second meet was in January at which point I jumped 13.58m, a small best but not what I had hoped for. I wanted 14 meters, I wanted it bad. The rest of the season went downhill, things just didn’t seem to be right; I wasn’t injured anymore but I just didn’t jump well. I did make it to the national championships (sneaking in with the 11th seed out of twelve) but I didn’t jump well, I was nervous and flat; I jumped 13.20m
   That summer I started focusing on getting stronger and I worked on my arms to become more dynamic throughout the jump. I worked hard and smart and seemed to be on track until I was faced with another obstacle in May—A torn left hamstring. I had never been faced with a hamstring issue before, it was new and scary but I didn’t manage to rehab it. Though the tissue reassembled itself the fear never went away, it still hasn’t. A month later I tore it again, two weeks before the national junior championships. I couldn’t believe it, I was devastated and my mind was instantly flooded with thoughts of worst case scenarios, how I wouldn’t be able to jump at nationals and if I could I wouldn’t be at my best.
   The injury did heal slowly but it was a race against the clock, it wasn’t until the morning of the competition that I decided that I was healthy enough to jump and even then I loaded up on as much pain killer as was safe and rubbed on as much tigerbalm that I possibly could. I guess I was well rested because I set a new pb (13.84m) and walked away with a bronze medal, I was pretty happy with the result but I was still wistful that I didn’t break the 14.00m barrier. I jumped at a couple small meets over the rest of the summer but my heel started to bother me and I didn’t pb anymore.
   I came into my second year of university much more experienced than I had been the year before and I finally started to have a stretch of healthy training and a string of personal bests. I pb’d three times in a row jumping 13.88m, 14.02m, 14.28m. I had finally broken the 14.00m barrier which had been held over my head for so long and I also jumped the auto qualifying standard for the CIS championships. I was happy… for about a day, and then I wanted more. I set my sights on winning but little did I know that 14.28m was as good as things would get for that season. I tore my hamstring again in January and again in February, and a week before nationals in March. I ended up going all the way to Winnipeg, sitting around the hotel icing for the better part of a week just to finish with a “No Jump” performance.
   The next and my most recent season didn’t go much better, I managed to jump 14.38m with a tail wind and consistently proved that I belong over 14.00m but I never got the jump I was looking for. It was hard to because the biggest meet of the season (Olympic Trials) was in June which was really early. I continued to jump until August but found that it was too long to try to maintain. I learned a lot about myself and how my body responds to different training stimuli so hopefully it is knowledge that I’ll be able to take forward with me. It's funny how standards change everyday and how a distance can sound so insurmountable one day and then next it becomes routine.
   I feel as though I am becoming a better athlete every day, both mentally and physically I’m become more proficient at my event. I still dream of making a national team someday. It’s easy to look back and to just think about all the injuries and times I was knocked down and didn’t get to where I wanted to as soon as I would have like but… I started off jumping 7.00m in grade seven and now I’m almost halfway between 14.00m and 15.00m. I’m going to keep training hard every day until I finally reach my potential, hopefully that won’t be for a while.