Your Second Family as an Athlete <3 Humboldt Broncos

For so many of us, being an athlete is what shapes our lives into who we are today. I honestly do not know how many times in a day I relate back to some sort of lesson I learnt over the years playing sports. I can not even imagine what the families, friends, and teammates are going through right now from this tragedy. I spent so many years of my life travelling on a bus for games and tournaments, but in an instant that can all be taken away.

This really hits home for me because I began playing sports when I was only five years old, Ringette was my initial start to my childhood journey of sports. I played ringette for eleven years, and in the last four years I played on a team that was considered a tournament, and provincial team. Our entire team literally grew up together, because we spent seven days a week, three hours everyday, training for our tournaments. Each and every one of the girls on my team were literally like a sister. For those of you who had something similar, you would all agree that the bus trips were probably the best memories of the entire season. Being on the bus meant that we could laugh together, torment the coaches from the back of the bus, and make memories that we would have with us forever…

I quit playing ringette when I was fourteen years old, so I only had eleven years of memories with my second family. These players from Humboldt were young adults, and had up to seven more years of memories than I had! Even to this day if the Broncos were the team I used to play on when I was fourteen I would honestly feel like I lost a part of my childhood. These players and families are losing a part of their lives, whether they were the survivors of the accident or not. Nothing can make the pain go away, but make sure you always remember the second family that helped you become the person you are today, the person you are tomorrow, and the person you will be for the rest of your life.

My thoughts and prayers go out to each and every person affected by this tragedy, because there is nothing worse than losing family.