Hockey


I like to say that if you’ve done something for ten years or more, then you enjoy doing it. This certainly applies to me playing hockey. I have played hockey since I was in grade 1, and even though I didn’t really know what I was doing all those years ago, I still loved it. After my first couple years of playing, I decided that I wanted to play goalie. If I’m being honest, the only reason I wanted to be a goalie was because I was too lazy to do all the skating drills during practice. Having said that, I really do have a passion for playing goalie now. This past year was my tenth year in total playing hockey, and it was my eighth year playing goalie, five of which I have been my teams’ full time goalie. This year, I was expecting our team to not be very good. I was super happy to be proven wrong, as not only did my team make the finals, but we actually won!!! This was only the second time in my ten years of playing that I had won the championship, but it really wasn’t so much the winning that made it as enjoyable as it was. What made it enjoyable for me was that, this year more than others, I had a chance to really make a difference for my team. This, however, is not the only reason I like playing, here are some of the others. First, I am a very competitive person, I like being able to express my competitive nature in an appropriate setting. Next, I have a huge appreciation for the community that playing on a team sport creates. It is amazing how at the beginning of the season you’re in a room with a bunch of guys who you know nothing about, and by the end of the year you’ve built some really great bonds with your teammates. It was super cool this year how, at the start of the year, I only knew a couple of the guys on my team, but by the end I knew them all quite well. Lastly, I just love playing hockey. I really enjoy going to the rink for every game and just being excited to play. Even if the team I am on isn’t the best, it can still be valuable as I can do things in games that I would never do if I was on more competitive teams. It really is amazing how a relatively simple game can give me such joy, and how that same relatively simple game can create bonds that could last a lifetime.

(HUGE thanks to my coach Andre Eng for taking these photos)

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