Story of Self: Part II
Why
The growth the Harvard Alpine Ski program has undergone during my five years at Harvard was inspiring to be a part of and something that I wanted to continue contributing to. When faced with medically-retiring, I knew that I had to reflect and think outside of the box to curate the best way that I could support the team in a way that highlighted my skillset. That is when I began to holistically view the roles that I had already taken on in addition to being an athlete: running the Harvard Alpine social media accounts, working as a liaison to Harvard Athletics media and marketing departments, being a Student Athlete Wellness Leader, being the ski team representative to SAAC as well as the co-head of the Student Wellness committee. I took notes on the numerous roles that were both important to me but also served the team. I then created a multi-faceted role for myself that also included the addition of becoming the Harvard Alpine manager, traveling with the team each race weekend and being the start coach. With these thoughts well laid out, I had a smooth conversation with my coach who fully supported me in this transition and thus, I was able to create a function for myself with numerous elements of responsibility that support the ski team despite the fact that I am no longer physically competing. Having already done this “soul searching,” extensive research, and instigating the difficult conversation with my coach, this blueprint for action is to be able to provide that same structured breakdown of service role optionality in an easily digestible manner so that other medically-retired athletes who wish to be fully committed to a team have a blueprint and precedence to work off of.
