Ubc Informative Speech

To you I am just a one in the hundreds of applicants, I am just a grade on a paper – you don’t know me, you don’t know what I look like, you don’t know my story. There is more to me then that number on a page, and more that I would like you to get to know. I’m sure the admissions offices are flooded with the discontent of applicants who feel they deserve to have this opportunity. I can only imagine the difficulties that come along with sifting through piles of students ranging from across the country and even abroad, narrowing it down to the top contenders who are believed to maintain the reputation of UBC. UBC is one of Canada’s leading Universities, with an outstanding Kinesiology program that people such as myself dream of one day being
a part of. UBC’s reputation to produce graduates that achieve great professional success is sought after by many Canadian and International students alike. Well I am here just like many others, giving my dream school with my dream program one more chance to prove why I am that one candidate out of thousands that will make a difference, I will live up to the standards of the schooling but also a fine example as an alumni in my career of Athletic Therapy.
During my years of sport I have been exposed to some of the top athletic doctors in Canada, this is what has created the desire to be part of this field. At a young age I started experiencing issues with my back, this is when I was first immersed into the physical therapy field. I had begun to see a chiropractor Dr. Larry Bell, a quick background on him is he has been involved in six Olympic games, 18 world and commonwealth championship games. My back had always been an issue, as my first year of university was approaching the issue got worse and I had injured it to the point I had a herniated disc at the age of 18. This was my first semester of university, it was something so hard to deal with at the time – it was difficult to manage my 5 courses all in the Science field and try to maintain my academics. Everyday I had constant pain and no one could fix it. This had caused me to become depressed; I wasn’t able to always attend classes because I was just in so much pain. I began to start to see physiotherapists to help try and treat this. As the year went on I started being immersed in the world of the
different therapies such as; Athletic therapy; chiropractors; physiotherapy. As my injury started to get better I was finally able to return back to sports, I had been scouted to join the Univeristy of Victoria rowing team. My intense athletic background enabled me to slip into the rowing program quite easily. Waking up for practices, and dedicating myself to working out was simple, nothing I hadn't done before. Within 4 months I was one of the fastest girls on the team, I trained all year and all summer leading into our top regatta of the year – the Canadian Henley. It was my last final of the regatta, within the first few strokes of the race our I pulled one hard stroke and felt a shooting pain right down my back and my leg. I had double herniated my discs and quickly realized I had to stop my upcoming journey in rowing and work on my rehab. This was when I met Dr. Michael Murray and AT Jessica Smith, Dr. Murray has been the main chiropractor for the Men’s Canadian Olympic rowing team and Jessica was the AT for Canada’s men U20 rugby team. This was when I quickly realized I needed to be a part of this field, I had seen first hand the healing of my own body but also world class athletes around me. This by far was one of the most painful things I had endured, it took a toll on my grades, my mental health, and just my happiness. It was hard to juggle the schooling, my rehab, and my training. I was going through the processes of intense rehab, seeing my hard dedication and commitment to my rehab paid off. I began to realize that I really wanted to commit to my schooling, I was able to see that UBC rowing was number one in Canada, I saw the prestige in the Kinesiology program and knew that is where I wanted to be. Since I was a top rowing athlete at UVIC the UBC rowing program welcomed me into there program, by this point I had worked hard to heal my injury by myself without the use of surgery. I was beyond excited to start my academics at my dream school, but also be a part of the top rowing program in Canada. It was three weeks into my training when I reherniated my two discs in my back, this time the most it had ever been done. I was now at a new school, living on campus knowing no one, now not being a part of the team, and also trying to manage my studies as I dealt with this all alone. I was depressed, and it was hard for me to manage my studies as I couldn’t sit for longer then five minutes or even walk as far as 10 steps without having to stop. It’s hard to explain what you go through when you have an injury that one may not be able to see, it is constant and relentless, it is exhausting. It was hard for me to focus, but yet again I hopped on the train of fixing myself, I still had the dream of Olympic rowing and my schooling that I was not about to give up on.
I rehabbed all year, working with a AT in Vancouver by the name of Clayton Cross, working with him even then furthered my desire to become an athletic therapist. I saw him working with top class athletes from football to NHL players, this ignited the fire inside of me feeling as though I had finally found my passion, something that I knew I would be as dedicated and committed to as I was to my sports. I had just started coming into my finals week of the spring semester when I had received a call about my father, he had gone into kidney failure and we didn’t know if he was going to make it. I was rushed home with an exam in little under a week. Not only adding stress to my injury that was yet to be healed, my own father was maybe not going to make it. This all took a major toll on finals and my overall mental state. I tried to switch up exam dates but I would’ve end up doing them two months later, so I decided to just try and get them done. By the end of the year I had planned that starting September 2015 I would be a part of the rowing team full-time, and finally start my beginning. If I had not gone through
enough injury yet, I ended up in a wakeboarding accident, fracturing the end of my tibia and femur also tearing my MCL and PCL, I would then be out for another year. This was devastating as I finally started to have my back in check, I decided to move back to Victoria to continue a year of rehab with Dr. Murray and AT Jessica Smith. I worked hard and dedicated all of my time to my rehab, but this not put out the fire I had for attending UBC kinesiology program. I tried explaining the reasons why I wanted to pursure this degree and why I saw as I was fit for this. This appeal means a second chance for me, a chance to prove that with all the things I have gone through it has made me that much more experienced and that much more willing to learn. I am not fresh out of high school not knowing was I want to puruse, I have sat through many of lectures, midterms, and exams, I know what it is like. I am ready to finally commit, to prove to you, to everyone, that this is my passion and that I am ready for this challenge ahead. My story makes me who I am, but it also shows you that even though I had all these struggles within my career at university, I was still able to do it, and now I am ready for it. I’ve seen the struggle of injury but also the success of healing, what I want to do is to help people heal, and I know that with a UBC degree by my side I can do that. I may not have the numbers on the page that you usually would like to see, but I am the exception I know that I will make UBC proud, so take a chance on me. This is my dream please don’t wake me up from it.