This afternoon as I watched the mighty Richmond Tigers take on Sydney at the SCG, the cameras panned to Richmond’s interchange bench. In that brief shot, huddling from the cold and rain with the players and officials was one of Richmond’s team physiotherapists. At that instant, a 15-year old dream came flashing back..
At school I aspired to become a physiotherapist and one day work for an AFL club (preferably the tiges). As a 15 year old footy & sports nut, the thought of being a physio for an elite sporting team was the ultimate.
I did achieve my goal of becoming a physiotherapist. I also started my journey towards working for an AFL club by volunteering as a sports trainer & then spending one year as physiotherapist with Gippsland Power in the AFL’s TAC Cup Under 18 competition. And my dream stopped there.
You see, for me, working as a physiotherapist for a sports team wasn’t as awesome as I had thought. And that’s ok. Dreams change.
I had given that dream of becoming an AFL physiotherapist everything I had. I’d worked hard at school. I’d worked hard in my first year of Uni to be accepted into The University of Melbourne’s Physiotherapy School. I’d worked consistently throughout Uni and then even harder in my first year as a graduate physiotherapist. I’d given myself every opportunity of achieving my dream and was only a few steps away from making it happen. But at that point, I no longer wanted it.
In my 31 years thus far, I’ve achieved plenty of goals and dreams. I assure you there are many, many more to come. Dreaming big, setting goals and making them happen is what makes me happy. Today after a jog on the beach, as I sat on the couch with KW and our baby daughter on this long weekend, I felt very happy that I’d changed my mind and decided not to push on with my dream to become a physio for an AFL club. In the end, it just wasn’t for me.