“Some people say that grade 12 is probably the best year of high school just because it’s your last year, it’s a lot more chill and you can have your life sorted out. For me, it was the opposite. By far, grade 12 for me was the hardest year.
There was this project we had to do called the Capstone, we had to select a goal and meet it at the end of the year and you’re suppose to present it. Mine was to make the National team for Netball and eventually travel to Argentina with an amazing team. Basically making it on the Team BC team for 3 years consecutively, I did not make it in my last year of high school and that deteriorated me because my confidence level in terms of Netball was pretty high, so not making it on the team brought my self esteem really low especially eventually I wanted to make my way up to the National team one day. It motivated and unmotivated me at the same time because I really wanted to make it on the team, it was my last year and I wanted to travel to Calgary for my last year.
I continued to train really hard throughout the year, and eventually as soon as the tryouts came in April, everything went downhill for me. It was my birthday and my grandma had passed away and that was my main goals for her to see me graduate. I found myself in a really deep hole and I couldn’t get out of. I eventually found myself in a Psychiatric Ward because I tried to end my life the easy way and this changed my whole life. Not only did I find my path in what I wanted to pursue in the future, but also motivated me to continue what I’m actually passionate for. Throughout my life sports has been a way for me to get away from reality, it’s something that drives me to sanity.
When I was really little actually I was an obese child, bullied for it. Eventually when I got to grade 8 people started to see a different part of me because I joined cross country knowing that I was so bad at long distance running. I joined the cross country team because I just started high school and wanted to experience different types of sports because knowing in elementary school, 800m, 400m, I’d be the last person running. By the time I reached the end of the finish line, the second batch of runners would be already finishing as well. It didn’t unmotivated me. I continue to race in long distance running. At the end of the season in grade 8, I made it to the Provincial Championships for cross country, on a BC level for high school. I continued cross country for the rest of my high school years, I continued to make it to the BC Championships. That helped me train for netball, but I did not end up trying out for the National team for Argentina this year just because my life went downhill but I was able to get back up. Now I’m pursuing rugby instead of netball due to personal circumstances but I’m happy I did because now I’m representing SFU, I’m going to Langara in the fall to be a psychiatric nurse because of my personal experiences. Eventually I hope to start my netball career in the future because it’s never too late.” – Makaila John