Black History Month AT Edition: Dr. Krystal Tyree

Starting last year I began creating Black History posts highlighting athletic trainers that I thought more people within the profession and outside should know. The threads were a big hit. I learned about ATs of the past and present and even highlighted the future (committees, AT programs, and AT students). So this year I decided to continue it again this year.

I reached out to athletic trainers that I had either met in person or on social media, as well as continued to shine a light on those who served in the profession in the past.

One athletic trainer I reached out to was Krystal Tyree, DAT, LAT, ATC. I have been following her on social media for over 2 years and have been a big fan of her AT apparel shop (more on that later). She is a mother, athletic trainer, professor, and business woman.

Background:

Education: Krystal received her Bachelor of Science from Southwestern College in Kansas. She then went on to earn her Masters of Science in Kinesiology and Sports Studies from Texas A&M University-Commerce. Final she obtained her Doctorate in Athletic Trainer from the University of Idaho. Dr. Tyree has training or certification in several types of manual therapy and functional movement paradigms such as FMS/SFMA/Y-Balance, Total Motion Release (TMR), Positional Release Therapy (PRT), Primal Reflex Release Technique (PRRT), Trauma Release Exercises (TRE), and the Mulligan Concept. 

Work History:

• Klein ISD: 2019-present

• Select Medical: 2021-present

• TCCD Adjunct Instructor: 2017-present

• Logan University Adjunct Instructor: 2017-2019

• Lamar CISD: 2013-2019

Professional Achievements:

“A Novel Approach to Treatment Utilizing Breathing and a Total Motion Release ® Exercise Program in a 17-year old Female Cheerleader Diagnosed with Frozen Shoulder: A Case Study”

• Southwest Athletic Trainers’ Association Annual Meeting and Symposium July 2017
• International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy October 2018

“More than Feeling: Using Exercise to manage Emotional Responses in Sports” – 69th NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo Learning Lab June 2018

What is a Fun Fact About Yourself?

“I really like DIY stuff. Before I buy it, I tell myself I probably could make it! I bought a circular saw and have built several things around my house.”

What is something you love about the Athletic Training profession?

“The versatility. There’s so much you can do with the athletic training profession and I wish they would have taught that in my undergrad. I mean you have Stretch businesses out there. You can literally go in and get stretched! Imagine if an AT ran a business like that (and there may be some that do). So much more value in patient experience.”

Advice you have for other BIPOC ATs or AT students

“Don’t limit yourself. I know there is a lot of negativity out there about the athletic training profession but there are so many things that you can do with your degree, background, and knowledge. Do not follow the status quo. Think outside the box. The money, appreciation, value, and respect is out there, you just have to be brave enough and resilient to go find it. Athletic Training is not who you are, its what you do! Get a twitter and follow every single athletic trainer, both good and bad. Find a mentor and connect with people. Speak up but also learn to listen. Use your voice. It matters. I’m probably going to take some backlash for this but just because they look like you, does not mean that they have your best interest. If it doe not feel right, it probably isn’t. It’s okay to leave or find something better. If you’re faced with a barrier or road block and not sure how you are going to get it, find a different approach.”

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself?

“Besides Athletic Training, I’m a mom first to a beautiful baby girl and she has changed my life. I own two business (it’s still weird to consider myself a business owner). RyLand & co and ACTIVATED. RLC is an online apparel shop dedicated to black culture and black representation. DFND BLK is an apparel line through RLC. This line was created for all support and protection of the black community. You can find all my apparel on http://www.rylandandco.com. If you need anything Athletic Training related, check out http://www.atmerchandapparal.com ACTIVATED is currently under construction, but we hope to be back in the summer offering athletic training services for the public and the physically active individual! But if you or your company are in Houston, TX area and are needing to get First Aid or CPR certified, contact me!”

Ways to contact Dr. Tyree

• email: katyree10@gmail.com
• facebook: Krystal Tyree
• twitter: Capital_KT

Updates: Check out this amazing article to learn more about Krystal’s business and more about why she started her comapnies. https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-dr-krystal-tyree-athletic-trainer-business-owner/

For National Athletic Training Month Krystal is selling NATM shirts on her website along with other amazing AT apparel (I currently own one of every design she had put out). How about showing your support for a Black-Owned Small Business this month by buying a t-shirt or hoodie to wear during NATM in March. And If you plan to wear it to NATA2022 in Philly let me know so we can take a picture together.

Here are a few of Krystal’s shirts in a few of my TikToks. Go get yours today

@coachmorrisat

Can we just flash forward to summer break already? #athletictraining #sportsmedicine #sports #teaching

♬ original sound – Mr. Campbell

@coachmorrisat

Meet the Avengers new Athletic Trainer. It’s her first day. #avengers #mcu #wandavision #tfatws

♬ original sound – Victoria Morris- MS, LAT, ATC

Interview with the Great Anthony Hunter

For this weeks short interview I decided to reach out to a secondary school AT who I have been looking up to for awhile. I would love to one day make the trip out to Marietta, Ga to see Tony Hunter out at Walton High School.

So who is Anthony Hunter?

The first thing you need to know about this guy is that he is the kindest and one of the smartest people I have meet on social media. Again I am going to make it to Georgia to meet this guy in person. He is also pretty strong I hear.

More on the athletic training side, this awesome human being has been around the country. He started his character at Minnesota State University-Mankato earning his Bachelors of Science: Exercise Science and Bachelors of Athletic Training. From there it was on to Ball State to earn a Masters of Arts: Sports Performance. While at Ball State, Tony was a graduate assistant AT working with the football team. And post Ball State, Anthony did a fellowship at Oregon State University.

Continuing his experiencing with football at Kennesaw State University, Tony was an assistant athletic trainer in the sports medicine department before moving to his current position at Walton High School as the head athletic trainer.

This is where out interview really starts.

Knowing that every athletic trainer is passionate about something I asked Tony what he was passionate about in the athletic training profession.

His answer was unsurprising if you’ve ever followed @WaltonSportsMed on twitter (you totally should) or if you’ve ever talked to Tony. His answer you ask; “Establishing a blueprint to building sports medicines programs. This includes adequate staff, adequate sports medicine facilitiy size, and moving from a coverage model to a care model.

I will admit before I ever met Tony or followed him on social media, I was all about the coverage idea. I was there physically for the athletes and when they needed something. But after understanding the differences between covering a practice/game and providing healthcare during a practice or game I try to provide healthcare for my athletes in all aspects. Lately, this has been focusing on the mental health of my athletes (COVID reasons).

“Is there anything you experienced as an AT/clinican that you think non BIPOC ATs/Clinicans could benefit from understand?” This has been a question I have been asking everyone in my interviewsto get to know the experiences of my collegues that I know I have ignored or overlooked.

Tony’s answer was something that I have seen from many BIPOC collegues and an issue that much of out leadership needs to address. “The lack of representation in our profession association makes POC members feel undervalued and underappreciated.”

A following up question, “Overall are you happy with the direction the governing bodies (National, district, state) are taking with addressing race and ethnic diversity? What are some things you would like to see?

I think we can all agree with Tony’s answer that our governing bodies could do better. His solution would be to see true inclusivity within the NATA Board of Directors.

• As a secondary school athletic trainer, what would you like your colleagues, who do not work in this setting, to know about you and your staff and program?
  • ” We have been fortunate by God’s Grace to build a true Sports Medicine Program at the secondary level. We have CTAE Sports Medicine Pathway for our students to be exposed to the athletic training profession. We are also fortunate to have a 3000 sqft Sports Medicine facility. Our staff is diverse with 4 certified athletic trainers. Finally, we are able to affectievely provide full athletic training services and high-quality to our student athletes.”
• What is your favorite part about being an AT? What about being an SSAT?
  • “My favorite part about being an AT is providing outstanding athletic health services to my student-athletes.”
  • This is something we should all focus on as ATs no matter the setting. Our job is to provide our student-athletes with all the knowledge we have to help them live a healthy liftstyle. I think Tony embraces this more than most I know.

Something Tony and I have in common in a love of superheroes. And because of this I thought it would be a good question to ask which superhero Tony which superhero he thought would be the best choice to replace him at Walton. First, let me start off my saying there is no one who can replace Tony. He is already a superhero in his own right. I did like this answer though, because to be honest he picked my favorite Marvel hero (comics and movies). In fact, I think I am going to keep this question for the rest of my interviews.

So who was Tony’s choice? None other than King T’Challa aka Black Panther. GUYS, THIS IS LITERALLY THE PERFECT CHOICE BECAUSE THE TWO ARE SOOOO SIMILAR!!!

But why?

Tony’s responses:

• His leadership skills are second to none
• He is a servant to his people
• He is a genius, strategist, and tactician
• And he NEVER FREEZES!

Wow those are some great answers. And as a Blank Panther fan myself (seriously I own way too much Black Panther and Captain America stuff) here are my reasons why I think T’Challa and Tony are similair.

• Both are deeply passionate about protecting their people
• Warm and sense of humor
• More strategic and willing to look at all sides of a problem before acting
• Last who doesn’t want that badass suit and all the vibranium in the world. Imagine all the cool AT related things you could make with it.

The last thing I asked was if there were any ATs that should be highlighted for Black History Month. So if you are on this list you may just be getting a message from me soon

• Larry Reynolds
• Larry Bell
• Rob Dicks
• Dr. Nikki Harris
• Dr. Mercedes Himmons

I want to thank Anthony for taking some time to answer a few of my questions. Thanks for everything you do for our profession!

Racism in a Dollar Store

For today’s post I want to share with you an experience that I had a few years ago in a small town in Texas.

I was at a store during my lunch break to buy snacks or something for my athletes. I was in line to check out when a young black man about my age walked into the store. Not thinking anything of it I continued to scroll on my phone as I waited. Just a minute or two later, I hear a store clerk begin to yell and holler at the man. She begins to accuse the man of stealing and harassing her. I honestly couldn’t believe it. Looking back, however, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I will never forget the man had literally walked to the paper aisle and picked up a spiral and walked to get in line behind me. The man started to explain to the store employee that he was not stealing and that he wanted to purchase the spiral in his hand for his daughter. Apparently, earlier that day, his daughter had been asked to leave class because she did not have the right supplies, and the man had taken off from work to pick her up a cheap little notebook.

The store employee did not belive the man and continued to harrass the gentleman and instist he was a thief. She even started to call the police.

Now I am not a confrontal person and I have extreme anxiety and am very shy when in public. But I could no longer take the abuse this man was recieving. I apologized to the man for having to put up with this ignorant, racist, and vial woman. I then stepped in between the two and not so politely told the store employee that if she did call the police I would stay and provide witness that she was the one harrassing the man.

Once I was finished with my rant, I turned and offered to buy the spiral and a pack of colorful pencils for the gentleman’s daughter. I did this not because I felt sorry for him (though he was was clearly not having a good day) but because as an educator I wanted him to see that the actions of his daughter’s school were uncalled for as well. I was an employee of the district his daughter attended and this was one small act I could do to show him that there are allies within the education system (though sometimes few and far between).

After having a lovely conversation with this gentleman I found out that he had just started his second job of the day when he got the call about his daughter He was a single father and he was overwhelmed and exhasuted from working and caring for an elementary aged daughter. Needing someone to take to myself, as I was in the middle of my first football season at a new school and feeling overwhlemed myself, I decided to invite this man to lunch. Needless to say, I think I made his day.

The point of this story it to say that as human beings and as a healthcare providers our job is to be nice and to genuinely care about people. Yet all we seem to do is tear each other apart.

I chose to post about this man who has become a friend of mine, even though I no longer work in the same school district, because it points out the obvious racism and the sometimes less obvious systemic racism that BIPOC members of our community face.

I as a white woman would have a near zero chance of being fasely accused of stealing a cheap spiral from a dollar store. My future daughter would likely not be sent out of class just because she did not have the needed supplies that day. Yet this is what BIPOC members of our community deal will on a daily (sometimes mutiple times) basis.

To all my white collegaues, I ask you to think about your day today. Was there any moment that you witnessed a BIPOC member of your community or your athletes/patients, or your colleague being racial profiled? Think long and hard, because you probably did. What did you do about it? Did you experience an unconscious racial baises towards someone who was not of your race? Did you use a microaggression and think to change the way you spoke, acted, or communicated?

As non BIPOC we must work to understand that we in fact to have bias and to completely understand them. We also have to put in the work

ackoneledge that bias and learn how to ignore the bias we percieve and just see a person as a person. Saying that skin color doesn’t matter shouldn’t be your only rational when thinking about racism. You should acknowledge that there are different races and that we non BIPOC need to work hard in understanding the struggles our community memebers face and listen and learn what it is that we can do to help.

Franchesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh on twitter and youtube) has some pretty amazing videos that I have been watching lately. But she has a quote that I want to end with.

“Stop Thinking of ‘Ally’ as a Noun – ‘Ally’ is not a label you can just choose, it is a process. It does not give you bragging rights. Always remember that you benefit from your own privilege ​daily, and in doing so, you still contribute to others’ oppression.”

Learning About Diversity in Athletic Training

Let me start this off by saying that I am not an expert in diversity nor will I ever be.

I am a white female from a middle class family who grew up in a small prodominately white town. I will never understand the struggles of what it is like to be a person of color. But I am curious and want to learn as much as I can.

I have spent the last 7 months talking to BIPOC Athletic Trainers and learning from their experiences to try and become more of an ally. I have done my own research into these topics and have found that I am becoming more and more interested in the diversity (or lack thereof) of my profession.

I have decided spend Feburary blogging about the things I have learned and hopefully sparking discussions with ATs who can help educate me and provide me with ways to become a better advocate for everyone.

I want to start off this month long series with a simple and small interview I did with an Athletic Trainer that I have followed on social media and really admire. I learned somethings from the 4 simple questions asked.

Mr. Larry Bell, MS, LAT, ATC twitter-@LarryBBell

• “What are some things you’ve experienced as a minority AT that you think would benefit from more recognition or change within the profession?” I asked this question because I wanted to know if there was anything that was happening to minority ATs (not just BIPOC ATs) that maybe I could help bring to light.
  • “After nailing interviews and being preferred by head ATs, being passed over for positions in favor of less experienced, white ATs.” -Larry Bell
  • This is something that I had heard of but did not know actually happened. Having worked with BIPOC ATs in the past, I couldn’t imagine them being passed over for someone else just because of skin color. Like holy crap!!! But now I am aware of this happening (after talking with others more in depth on this issue) and will make sure that I do everything in my power to never let this happen to anyone when I am in position to hire or make hiring decisions.

• “Is there something you want non-BiPOC ATs to learn, understand, or do to better understand their minority athletes?”
  • “Get to know your athletes as people. Holistic practice. Learn about their home lives. Ask questions. Be an active listener.”
  • This one hit home. I thought I had been doing this before, but boy was I wrong. I started making a note in my evaluation to ask about my athletes’ well-being. I would disguise this as just a friendly chat, talking to teachers or teammates, or just coming right out with it, if it was an athelte that I was immediately considered about. Let me tell you, this has completely changed the way I treat my athletes. And I have even used this approach to talk with co-workers. I believe it is starting to strengthen my relationship with my BIPOC athletes and co-workers.
• “Overall are you happy with the direction the governing bodies (National, district, state levels) are taking with addressing race and ethnic diversity? What are some things you would like to see?” Just a little background on this question; I interviewed Mr. Bell, after the death of Mr. George Floyd and the Nation’s outcry and protests.
  • “I would like to see them (NATA and State Associations) add an ethnic diversity committee to each state to coincide with the national committee.
  • I just found out that not every state has an EDAC committee and it left me dumbfounded. If your state has an EDAC could you please send it to me. I was trying to reasearch every state’s association but I could not find information on many of them.
• “Anything else you would like to add to the conversation?”
  • “Continue educating yourself and asking questions. I got into athletic training because I didn’t see ATs who looked like me when I was an athlete. Blacks made up the majority of athletes, but coaches and ATs were mostly white.”
  • This one hit hard. I mean it hit really hard. I got into athletic training because of my high school AT. And guess what she was white. When I went to college the ATs in my ATEP program where white. In fact the only BIPOC AT that the university was a graduate assistant who was Asian-American (shout-out to Phil). When I think about the preceptors I had I can only name 3 ATs who were not white and out of those 3, non were African American.
  • Now that I have spent time thinking about this I have made the effort to include as many BIPOC medical professionals in my sports medicine team as possible. Let me just tell you, we need more BIPOC in medicine. Especially in mental health. I have been struggling to find healthcare professional that are not white. I want someone that my athletes can feel comfortable around and who can relate to the aspects of my athletes’ lives that I can never understand.

Something else I enjoyed was discovery just a little more about sport psychology from Mr. Bell. Something that he really said touched home with me and I wanted to share with each of you.

“Oh yeah, we all have biases. That’s something that’s not touched on. Recognize them and ignore them as you get to know your patient population…” Larry Bell, MS, LAT, ATC

I hope that through all the interviews and information that I have been working on I can learn the biases that I have and understand how they can and do interfere with the care I provide my athletes. I cannot wait to share with you everything I have learned and still hope to learn.

If you would like to reach out and talk with me please do. I am always willing to learn new levels and how I can change for the better of those in this profession and the patients we take care.

A Thank You Letter To My Dog

Thank you for being my dog.

Thank you for being my best friend.

Thank you for always being there for me.

Thank you for coming into my life when I needed you the most.

Thank you for seeing me graduate from undergrad and grad schools.

For being there when I started my first job.

Most importantly, Thank you for saving my life.

You kept me sane when I needed it the most.

You gave me a reason to wake up in the morning and to continue everyday.

You saved me more ways than anyone will know.

Thank you for everything you did for me.

Thank you for being my dog.

51 Things for the ‘Bored’ Athletic Trainer

Does anyone else have the Bored in the House song from TikTok stuck in their head? No, just me? Okay cool.

It has been almost 5 weeks since the school I am employed at has canceled sports and classes. Sure students are still completing at home packets for their core classes but this has left me in sort of a rut. What am I suppose to do?

To be honest, the first couple of days were amazing. I caught up on all the sleep that I missed, watched all the DVR recordings in my Hulu Live, and started a new book series. But after a week the boredom started to creep up on me. See, I don’t do well being told to stay in one place. I love being outside, traveling, and most importantly sports. Though I would think those are three important qualities to any athletic trainer.

So to combat the boredom I have started purposely trying to do things every day to keep my mind fresh. It seems to have helped my mental state tremendously and after seeing and talking to other athletic trainers, I thought I would share my ideas.

To make this all a little easier to read, I have decided to make categories. Work, Personal, Entertainment, etc. Without any more rambling, here is my list of 51 things for the ‘bored’ AT:

Work

1. Revisit your EAP.
   • When was the last time it was updated? Do phone numbers need to be changed? Locations? Is there an EAP for each venue (basketball gym vs football stadium).
2. Update the Concussion policy.
   • When was the last time this was updated? Do you need to update the concussion management team? Have you discussed return-to-learn with concussion oversight doctor? What about with your principals and counselor? Or academic advisors. Do your teachers know about the concussion policies or that there even is one?
3. Review the Weather policy.
   • Are you still using a lightning detector or have you switched to a cell phone app? Heat index or WBGT? Is the procedure for cold water immersion and activating EMS included in case an AT is not nearby? Cold weather and what to do? Tornados and where to go? Flash flooding?
4. Create a Mental Health policy.
   • Does your institution have a mental health policy? Do you think it would be important to create one?
5. PASS (Secondary Schools)
   • Now is a great time for all of us secondary school ATs to be working on the NATA PASS (Program Assessment for Safety in Sport). Any AT can use this guideline to assess the safety of their facility. You could even use this to help increase your budget or help purchase something you or your facility really need.
6. Filing
   • If you are allowed to be on campus or in the office during most stay-at-home orders then this is the perfect time to catch up on all the filing, paperwork, notes, or online work. Turn up your favorite playlist on Spotify and unpack your favorite snack and get to work. Close those injuries that you have been meaning to close. Update any rehabs that you need to send out with athletes. Scan any doctor’s notes into the computer or send emails to coaches about expiring physicals or paperwork. Start packing up your seniors’ paperwork and getting them ready for storage.
7. Inventory
   • It is time to plan ahead for the next year. If you haven’t done so already, look at the things you want or need for the next year. Hopefully, without anyone else in the office, you can get this done without interruption. Start talking to your sales reps (if possible) and get your quotes and purchase orders ready. What better way to get back to work than with boxes coming in within the first few weeks?
8. Lesson plans and assignments
   • Do you teach? Are you having to teach now with distance learning? A good way to keep somewhat of a routine to the normal schedule is working on assignments and lessons for next year. Are you just going to teach the same thing as last year? What about those students who are missing at least 2-3 months worth of classes. How will you accommodate for that?
9. Rules
   • When was the last time you updated the rules of your facility? Especially Secondary School ATS.
10. Update website
    • Do you or your program have a website? When was the last time it was updated? Is everything on the site accurate? Now would be the best time to get everything up to date.
11. Research
    • Get caught up on those research articles you’ve been wanting to read. Wanting to learn more about FMS (me currently) then start reading.
12. CEUS
    • Did you wait until December to get all your CEUs for the past reporting period? Well, how about you get an early jump and start getting in some CEUs. NATA gives 10 credits with renewal, Arkansas state meeting is now online for those looking, and Gatorade Sports Science Institute has free nutrition CEUs.

Entertainment

1. Catch up on TV
   • Right now I am obsessing over Outlander, Blue Bloods, Supernatural, Jack Ryan, Narcos, Santa Clara Diet, Marvel Runaways
2. Start a new book series
   • Sure reading a new book is great. I recommend Little Fires Everywhere and its new series on Hulu. But what is even better is starting a series. Reading a book knowing there are at least two more books to go just seems to make it that much better.
   • My picks right now: Alex Cross series by James Patterson (28 books in total so far). The Hunger Games (reread), the prequel to the series comes out May 19th.
   • Standalone books: Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment by Carla Killough McClafferty. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo (watch her Netflix series too), and The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein.
3. Writing
   • Break open that journal you bought at Target because it had the cute design on the cover. Start that blog you’ve been telling yourself you’d write. Have poetry stuck in your head, or lyrics swirling about? Write them down. Did you always want to write the next great American novel? Why wait?
4. Learn a language
   • Ever have that moment when you have to talk to a foreign athlete or at a high school where the parents do not speak English? Start working on learning a second language. Go beyond just what you were taught in high school Spanish and learn how to speak medically.
5. Make a TikTok
   • I’m not even going to explain this one. Just do it. Then follow me @vmorris_at. Trust me, you will get addicted.
6. Make an at-home movie theater
   • Remember all those times when you were a kid and all you wanted to do was make a blanket fort in the living room and camp out. Why not do that know. Make a blanket fort with your tv at one end and as many pillows and blankets and cushions as you can fit inside. Pop some popcorn, bring out the soda and candy, and binge the entire MCU series. Or Star Wars, or Harry Potter.
7. Do a virtual tour
   • check out this link for some great ideas on virtual tours
8. Check out some Podcasts
   • My personal favorites are Candid Athletic Training (check out their twitter page for polls and interactions with the episodes), Sports Medicine Broadcast, Polos and Khakis, RISE podcast with Rachel Hollis, and my own high schools podcast with our Radio Station.
9. Chat with fellow ATs
   • Missing having conversations with someone that is not in your house? Well, @ATTalks (twitter) hosts weekly Zoom chats with ATs across the nation. Hit them up for info.
10. Find a Drive-in movie theater
11. Participate in a bear hunt
    • Check out the story here 
12. Have a backyard campfire
    • If you have the space break out the graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate. Maybe even some hotdogs if you want to make it a meal. Tell some scary stories. But nothing about deadly diseases, okay!
13. Do you have LEGOs?!
    • Do you have legos? If so, build an athletic training room. I want to see how creative everyone is. Send me a pic on twitter @morris_atc
14. Play card games with friends
    1. UNO is a great game to play with friends over Zoom. Be sure to check UNO’s official twitter page for clarification on some rules. So apparently you can’t stack Draw 4 cards. Who Knew?
15. Have a themed dinner
    • I’ve seen this a lot on social media and wish I didn’t live alone. Chose one night a week for the whole family to come to dinner dressed up in a theme. Favorite movie character, book character, decades night.

Hobbies

1. Plant a garden
   • Grow your own herbs and veggies. Recently, I just started a raised garden with herbs and peppers. My goal is to have enough veggies and herbs to make a bomb-ass salsa. Results to be determined.
   • Go to your local flower store or Lowes/Home Depot. Look around the aisles (safely) and find some flowers or plants you like. Make sure to decide if you are going to have to plant in a pot or if you have the place to plant in the ground. Picking out plants will require a little research. Note if your area is mostly sunny/shade. Good soil or poor.
2. Learn or practice an Instrument
3. Complete a puzzle
4. Cook, Bake, Mix
   • With more time on your hands why not start looking into recipes to try? Whipped coffee anyone?
   • I recently started cooking breakfast for myself every morning. It is a great way to get myself on a routine and to wake up. I start with a coffee and then proceed to find ingredients. I have made some amazing omelets, pastries, and full course English breakfast.
   • Baking is great for the whole family. Make cookies and let the kiddos decorate. Find something to celebrate and bake a new flavor of cake. Or heck, make your doggo some peanut butter snacks.
   • Anyone else finding that drinking without friends just isn’t as fun? Well, my friends and I have continued our weekly ‘girls’ nights’ just a little differently. Each week someone goes on that Facebook page Tipsy Bartender. You know the one– where they post videos of jolly rancher infused tequila or bloody mary popsicles with celery sticks. Anyway, we choose a video an then every Thursday we call get together on a Zoom call and try to recreate the drink in the video. Believe me, this is the most fun I have all week.
5. Knit, crochet, sew.
   • If you know how to sew, people everywhere are looking for masks. Give them away or sell them. It’s up to you.
6. Make tye-shirts from some of your old shirts. These make pretty great work out shirts.
7. Create some art.
   • Paint, draw, color, sculpt. Whatever it is that you have always wanted to do.
8. Stargaze/Cloudgaze
   • Have a picnic/midnight snack on the patio and just look up at the sky. Make it even more interesting by reading up on constellations or clouds.

Home

1. Spring Cleaning
   • Speaking of Marie Kondo from before– if you’ve read her book and watch her show, time to put all that knowledge to work. It is officially springtime so get to cleaning. Find what brings your joy and what does not. Then donate or throwing away the things that you found does not give you joy. Besides, it’s a great excuse to go shopping once the quarantine is over.
2. Home Repairs
   • need to repaint those cabinets? Fix the leak in the sink.
3. Feng Shui
   • How long have you had your living room decorated the way it is? Do you lack any style or decoration? Rearrange your furniture. Change up the style in a room.
4. Use the Fancy Dinnerware
   • Nothing says fun like bringing out the Christmas or Thanksgiving dinnerware.
5. Reorganize those bookshelves.
6. Clean under your bed.
7. Organize and label tools, cleaning supplies, laundry.
8. Put empty frames to use.
   • Print out your favorite pictures from your phone and put them on display for everyone to see.

You 

This goes for men and women. Take a day and just spend it taking care of you. Don’t worry about your significant other or your kids. Sure spend time with them and make sure they are feed, but otherwise, focus on you.

1. Sleep. Get lots of it.
2. Deep condition your hair. Parrafin wax your hands. Since we cannot get to the hair or nail salons trying to take care of your own hands.
3. Dye your hair. Please do this responsibly.
4. Make a list of things you’re grateful for each day.
5. Throw out old makeup, skincare products. Yes, sunscreen is included.
6. Take a bubble bath. Treat yo self with wine too.
7.  Workout
   • Has your strength coach been posting workouts for athletes? Why not participate. Heck, even video yourself doing the workout and send it to your athletes. I know that my athletes have more motivation to do something when they see their coaches and AT doing it.

 

Last but not least– Number 51!

Make sure to reach out to your co-workers, athletes/patients, coaches, doctors. This is a crazy time for everyone and just hearing from you could honestly make someone’s day.

 

So stay safe and healthy out there. To everyone still working and volunteering during this time. THANK YOU!!!

Mo Money, Mo Money

What is one thing all secondary school ATs which they had? I bet more money or a bigger budget would be in the top three. It seems that no matter how much we try to save our money it just disappears by the end of the school year. But thankfully I have found some ways to raise money for the high school program I work for. In fact, if you saw the clothes my students wear or the equipment that my facility has (especially for our size) you would think we had a fantastic budget.

First off, a little secret to help with the fundraising. Get to know the parents and supporters of your athletic programs. Obviously be nice and personable. But even more so, talk about your program. Let these people know who you are and what you do. Tell them about your student aides, your classes, your program, and your athletic programs. Show them that you are invested in their children and trust me they will become invested in you. As the saying goes, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Once, you’ve established the connections needed, it is time to get on the fundraising trail.

Step 1: Get permission from your administration. Always make sure that your school is okay with you doing whatever fundraising you want. Also you can check with school secretaries to see when other programs are planning their own fundraisers. Nothing worse than having 5 different groups trying to sale something at the same time.

Step 2: Now that you have permission to fundraise it is time to think about what you want to do. My advice, do something out of the box. EVERYONE SELLS CANDY! STOP SELLING CANDY!

This is where I have had success. Several of the ideas I have done since I have been at my current position.

• Teacher vs Student volleyball or basketball games. Charge $1 for players to play and $2 for students to get out of class(es) to attend the game. Staff to play and/or attend is free. I typically pull in about $350 per game. I do one game a semester. ie after each of the official seasons are over. Want to make even more money? Sell food/concessions.
• Jean Passes: This is aimed at teachers and staff. Sell passes for teachers at $1 per day to wear jeans to work (max 1 or 2 weeks). This is a huge money marker for our school because teachers will do just about anything to get out of dressing up.
• Profit share nights. Have any restaurants near campus? Do people like to eat out before or after games? Ask about local fundraising nights. Sometimes you can get up to a 30% profit from the restaurants’ total profit. Want more money, make sure to spread the word. More people = more money.
• PICKLES!!!! This is my money maker here. I’m talking $30-$40 profit a week. How do I manage that, you ask? Easy. Buy a jumbo jar of dill pickles (Best maid in the plastic jars). Sell the pickles for $1 (about 16 per jar) and then use the pickle juice to make pickle pops. I spend about $9 for pickles, foam cups-8 oz (fill only 1/3 full), and popsicle sticks. Typically I can go through 2 jars a week. Just start selling  to your athletes and let word of mouth do the rest. I have the entire school coming to me for pickles and pickles pops throughout the day. Game nights, fans and athletes will stop by whenever I’m available. In fact, at one point there was a rumor going around that I actually grew my own pickles. Kids say the darnedest thing.
• Gatorade: We sell gatorade products out of our training room. Now this is not a big money maker but the little bit of profit we make (about $.75 a product) we use to buy things like chocolate milk, peanut butter, bread. Basically this just helps fuel our nutrition station. Yup we have a nutrition station.
• PHYSICALS!!!! Can you say $1000 made in one night. For one night only, KHS hosts a physical night for anyone needing a new physical. The cost is $15 though we offer assistance for anyone in need. Here is where I luck out. I have a partnership with a local doctor’s office that they come out and help with our physicals… AT NO COST! The money is donated back to our program and the doctor just writes it off for taxes. Get coaches, student aides, school nurses, and in our case our CNA class to help out. The more people helping the faster and smoother things can go. sidenote: we do not allow people to prepay. We make everyone pay at the door unless there is a good reason the student/parent cannot pay at the door. This helps keep money all in one place. 
• Kona Ice: This one falls under the profit share except that it requires a little more work on your part. Pretty much just contact your nearest travelling sno-cone stand/truck and set up a time and date for them to come out and set up. Keep in mind you want to have a decent crowd that will buy product. So schedule when you have multiple games or tournaments.

Step 3: Evaluate the success of your fundraising. Were you able to make a profit? Was it a reasonable profit? Was the work easy or uncomplicated? If you are able to answer yes to all of these questions, congratulations you just had your first successful fundraiser.

Answer no to any question? Maybe you need to go back and see what you could go to improve. If you cannot come up with a solution to improve then you might want to think about discounting the fundraiser.

Step 4: Plan for the future. If you are like me you like to know when and if you will have enough money. So I have started making a schedule for my fundraisers. This means that at a certain time each year I will do the same fundraiser.

i.e. Teacher vs Student Basketball game is always in May. Volleyball in December. Pickles and Gatorade sell year-round. Kona ice is in February or March. Profit share nights= 1 in November and 1 in April. Physicals are always the beginning of May.

When looking at when to schedule your fundraisers make sure that those that require more work are going to be scheduled for a time when you are not as busy. You do not want to do a car-wash on a Saturday during football season or a basketball game during spring sports.

As you can see there are several different options you can do that are different than everyone else. Sure, selling candy, popcorn, t-shirts, and concession stands are still options. But if you are looking for some out of the box options to set yourself apart try one of these.

When starting a fundraiser always make sure to have permission from your school first. 

 

New Year, Newish Me

Raise your hand if you have already broken your New Year’s Resolution. No judgment here. For AT’s it is this time of the year, especially to all my secondary school ATs. Shout out to all of you on your third or fourth cup of coffee. High School ATs are the real MVPs. I mean who else can juggle teaching classes during the day and an endless afternoon and evening full of countless sports games and practices. I mean come on, Basketball, Soccer (in the south), Wrestling/powerlifting, Baseball, Softball, Track, Golf, Tennis, Swimming, Cheer, Dance, etc.

Does it ever end? Come on Summer Break.

Between all that time spent at work and the little life outside of the clinic/training room, it is no wonder that your resolutions have been put to the side. It’s why I have done away with resolutions for the entire year and have instead adopted monthly goals.

In this post, I am going to talk about my goals for January. Yeah yeah I know the month is almost over, but this just means you get to read about how I have been working to complete the goals for this month.

So I have to start off by saying that sticking to my goals this month has been hard. Not because the goals themselves have been difficult but the time that I have to put into them. I never really understood just how much time and effort have to be put into social media. You’ll understand this in a few minutes.

If you do something every day for 30 days it will become a habit.

For the month of January, I decided to write down 3 goals I wanted to achieve this month.

1. Write more. This can include blogs, social media, journaling, anything really.
2. Raise money for Sports Medicine program (more on this in another post)
3. Create and stick to budget. (saving for a vacation)

For now, I am just going to focus on my writing. What does it mean more writing? Why do I want to write more?

I’ve always been a person that has a lot to say. But often I found it hard to say what I wanted out loud. Public speaking or speaking to anyone I don’t know very well has always been hard for me. But I found that in school I could really get my point across in written words. So much so that my English teachers in high school and in college were always telling me that I should look into writing more or careers in writing. If only they could see me now. I wonder what they would think.

During college and my first few years, I tried and failed every time to start a blog or keep journals. I would do great for a week for two and then something would come up and I would just stop. It was always like that. I would write here and there and then go months without writing a single thing. In fact, last year during National Athletic Training Month I tried to write posts but seemed to fail.

However, this year I have been doing much better. My writing has been going great and Already for the end of January and beginning of February, I have at least 4 blog posts in the works. I am super excited to keep this going and for you to follow along with me as I hope to grow this site into a helpful and maybe even a resourceful athletic training.

So on the count of three here we go…

Update:

1.I have written 3 blog posts for the month of January and first day of February. I’m already working on another for February about program fundraising (this ties into my second goal).

2. We have really kicked up the fundraising for the program. Pickle, pickle pops, and Gatorade product sales have really increased. We will be discussing the last minute details of the teacher vs student basketball game and then work on sign ups. A student is also working with local restaurants to host a profit share night. More info about our fundraising to come.

3. Budgeting. I have finally downloaded some budgeting apps. I spent all of January tracking everything I have spent money on. This has been inputted into the budgeting apps and a budget has been created. We will see if I can stick to the budget in the next couple of months.

Social Media and Athletic Training

“Don’t use social media to impress people, use it to impact people.” -Davewillis.org

Hey y’all, guess what? It is 2020!

No, we don’t have flying cars yet or an actual real hoverboard. I mean hello, when are those self-lacing sneakers from Back to the Future going to be available?

But you do know what we do have? Smartphones, the internet, and endless social media. Who would have thought that even in 2000 we would be able to post TicToks and have an amazing digital camera in the ‘palm’ of our hands?

Social media has been a big part of most people’s social and personal lives for more than a decade. We post our pictures from vacation, our dinner at the newest restaurant, political opinions, and complain about everything. But have you ever thought about what social media can do for you in terms of your career?

You’ve all seen the ads on Facebook (How do they even know I was thinking about upgrading my Keurig? I hadn’t even searched for one yet.) and the sponsored posts to instagram and twitter that celebrities and ‘influencers’ use to make money. The real question you should be asking yourself is how can I use this to help me?

I’m here to share some ways I have found that social media has helped both myself and my high school sports medicine program. I hope that you can take these stories and examples as ways to improve your way of using social media to help yourself.

1. Meeting and Networking

We’ve all heard that if you want anything in life it is all about who you know. Quite often, it turns out to be knowing people who know other people. Want your dream job? Looking for a mentor? Need money or sponsorship? All of this comes from creating relationships.

In my experience, twitter has been an invaluable tool. Sure I have a linkedin profile, but to be honest, I cannot even remember the last time I logged in. However, my twitter app is almost always open when I am on my phone.

But how does networking through an app/site like twitter work? Well, step one is to create a personal Twitter account. You can make a school or program account later if that is something you are interested in. Remember, that this site is never private no matter how many settings you change. If you put it on the internet it will be seen. But this can work in your favor. Once you have your profile set up just the way you like it, the next step is to start following people and accounts. As an athletic trainer, I try to keep the account I follow either Athletic Training related or people that I really want to follow.

        One of my favorite accounts is Haley Cruse, a softball player at Oregon who has       amazing TicTok videos.

Some recommendations to anyone out there unsure of who to start with (in no particular order):

• @ATmemes2: these are just some really fun tweets
• @WomeninAT: for my female ATs out there
• @NATA_YPC: for those AT young professionals
• @NATA_SSATC: High School ATs need to follow
• @candid_ATC: honestly one of the best AT podcasts around. Also, the polls on their twitter page are…🔥🔥🔥
• @NATA_COPA
• @go4ellis: Great PRN opportunities. Get their app and sign up
• @mnhopper1s: Umm hello he coined the hashtag #AT4All. Need I say more?
• @SWATA: Follow your districts’ twitter. SWATA just happens to be mine.
• @ATCanonymous: I like to follow this because sometimes I can help someone else who is asking questions. And every once in a while a really good question is asked that helps me.
• @Lego_ATC: Who doesn’t like legos? And now a lego AT? *Mic Drop*
• @BOCATC
• @NATA1950

Clearly, there are more than just these 13, but they are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

2. Interacting 

Now that you have followed some great profiles, it is time to start interacting. Like something that someone tweets? Don’t just hit the like button. Retweet. Heck retweet with your own comment. Or reply. Have a conversation with that person or account. Chances are the more you do this the more you will learn. And hopefully, the person on the other side is doing the same.

Something I have learned that that has been very useful for myself and my program is interacting with company social media pages. Do you like a product or a certain company? Post about it and tag the company. Is there a product you do not like or wish you could change? Post about it, tag the company and list your suggestions. Just in the year and a half, I have been at my new job I have received several offers from companies for products at little or no cost.

One example, in my first year at KHS I was in need of new treatment tables. As many of my secondary ATs know, budgets can be tight and needing to replace four tables is way too much money. So I just happened to post in a facebook group if anyone knew any programs that were planning to get rid of gently used tables. It took less than a day for me to receive a message back from the program director at Texas State University. Long story short, I was able to get three new tables that were like new. FOR FREE!!! Sure they weren’t our school’s colors, but vinyl covers are much much cheaper than whole tables.

My second examples are from this school year. If anyone who follows me on twitter knows I am a huge fan of Normatec.

    Hey Normatec reps, if you are reading this I would love to be a spokesperson.

Because of my love of the Normatec system, I started to tag the company and hashtag as much as possible. I gave great reviews (completely honest btw) and soon enough the company’s twitter account was liking and retweeting my own tweets. After about 2 months of this, I received a message from the company’s marketing team. Turns out Normatec has a High School Program that offers systems for lower rates. Two short weeks later KHS was a proud owner of a Normatec system. And before the year is out we will be buying a second because my athletic staff and students love it so much.

Now on to my biggest accomplishment yet. KHS IS WORKING TO GET A SIDELINE ER! Yup, you read that right, a 3A high school in Texas is getting this bad boy…

Alabama Sideline Tent

How the heck did I manage that? Easy, once again I just tagged the company @Kinematicsports on twitter and praised their product. I would explain why I would love to have a tent and just before winter break I received a message from a marketing rep wanting to work with us to get a tent. The best part? They wanted to try to get it for us for free.

Shoutout to Morgan Dewitt at Kinematic Sports. 

If you want to know more about this new venture just get in touch with me. I’d love to tell you about it.

3. Activity

First, you started building up accounts that you are following. Next, you started interacting with those accounts. But what is next?

Probably in my option, the biggest part of having social media as an athletic trainer is how you use it. Are you creating a Linkedin account to help out with finding a job? Great! Facebook to keep in touch with family, friends, and people you’ve met? Instagrams to follow celebs? Snapchat or TicTok to watch awesome videos? Whatever your reason is you need to find it.

For me, twitter is my biggest platform. I use this both for my personal page as well as for my sports medicine program and helping to run our boys’ basketball twitter page. Sure I have other social media platforms that I use but those are more for personal use and less for athletic training.

As an athletic trainer, you need to keep in mind that everything you post is a reflection of you. From the funny memes to the retweets or videos you post. For the sake of things, I must remind you to keep it professional.

Everyone knows that social media has its pros and cons. But the big question that many athletic trainers ask is how can I use social media to benefit myself and my profession. The answer is Advocacy!!!!

Advocating for our profession is one of the most important jobs we can do to help not just our profession as a whole but ourselves as well. Take a moment and count on your fingers how many times someone has mistaken you an athletic trainer for a personal trainer…

Run out of fingers yet?

Now I want you to think about physical therapists– Personal trainers are PTs and Physical Therapists are PTs but how many people get these two different professions confused? Not many, right? That is because the general public knows what the two are and what they do. Imagine if people thought of athletic trainers the same way.

Oh, you are an athletic trainer? That’s awesome. Thanks for all the long hours you put in preventing, treating, and rehabilitating injuries. Not to mention all of the care you take in your job! Athletic Trainers are the best!

Not going to lie if I had the above conversation with someone I think I would literally die from happiness. But it is not going to happen anytime soon. To reach conversations like these we have to educate the public on what athletic trainers are and what we do. But how?

Did you know more people get their news and information from social media than from reliable sources? If something is posted on the internet people will believe it. This is where we as everyday athletic trainers come in. We have to get the correct information out there to the public before they are exposed to stories and information that is untrue.

Going back to your activity on your social media; promote your profession. See an article about athletic training, read it, check it out for correct information and then share it. Hear about an AT doing something incredible? Share it? Scroll past an article about the importance of ATs and athlete/patient safety?? Retweet it.

Athletes at Risk?

Doing all of this puts information about athletic trainers and their importance out into the minds of others. But it’s not all you can do.

Something I have found to be very beneficial to myself and my program and sharing with others what I, as an AT, and my sports medicine program are doing to better our athletics program and the overall safety of our athletes. People love to see that you care about your athletes/patients enough that you are spending your Saturday night trying to build a new stretch board so that athletes/patients have access to more equipment (never hurts to put in there about having to do DIY because the program is strapped for cash). Or that you are fundraising to buy rain jackets for your student aides.

In fact, just this past week I had a post on my sports medicine page blow-up among high school ATs. I posted on the KHS sports medicine twitter a new way for our athletes to sign in. A simple QR that athletes could scan to save time and unnecessary paperwork for me (though I am still working out the kinks). Within minutes ATs from across the country were wanting to get it on the action. By the end of the day, I had ADs, coaches, PTs, and even a few doctors wanting to know how I did it. One simple post meant for my athletes earned me dozens of new followers and the tweet and the sports medicine page were exposed to hundreds of people. This only took 1 minute of work and yet made a huge impact for ATs.

Another awesome way social media can be a get tool for advocacy is to take a look at what @mnhopper1s has been able to accomplish. With one simple hashtag #AT4ALL, he has been able to change and impact the way athletic training is seen. Almost everywhere you look now you can see the hashtag on AT profiles, sports medicine pages, company websites and products. One simple act can go a long way.

All of this is just a start in the right direction of how using social media can help you. Don’t worry if you do not see results right away. Having a successful social media footprint takes time. We can’t all be a Kardashian or Jenner.

If you want some more resources to look into I suggest checking out this article on NATA for secondary ATs. It has some great information.

Social Media: #Power =#Responsiblity

And for some Social Media Do’s and Don’t’s head on over to this link.

Social Networking Do’s and Don’t’s

Now back to watching Tik Toks

Life isn’t perfect but at least I’m seeing 2020

Well here goes nothing. I’m going to try to recap the past year as best I can.

I’ve decided that I needed to get back to blogging and writing. I’ve always wanted to be one of those social media influencers but with my career and life (or lack thereof), I’ve never been able to find the time. But one of my goals for 2020 (more on that in a separate post) is that I want to get back to writing. From what I have seen and realized on twitter, instagram, and even facebook; its that people actually want to know what I think and what I have to say.

In fact, 2019 has been a great year for me and my career. I have increased my social media presence by advocating for my profession as well as my sports medicine program and the district I work for. Who knew that I would actually get excited when an original post that I created on twitter would get over 100 likes? I won’t tell you what happened when another post received over 300+ likes.

Looking back at this year it is so amazingly wonderful all of the accomplishments I was able to achieve. Each and every one of these accomplishments was a goal I wanted both professionally and/or personally. And while some are bigger than others it does not make them any less significant to me. Some of you out there will know just awesome these are.

1. Created a successful social media account for the district sports medicine program.
2. Earned the NATA Safe Sports School Award 1st team
3. Started the 1st Annual Teacher vs Student Basketball Game @ KHS & fundraiser for sports medicine program
4. Reestablished a Sports Medicine class and career track for KHS students.
5. Switched the entire athletic department to electronic record keeping (RANKONE) and baseline concussion testing (XLNTbrain).
6. Finally convinced the school district to pay for ambulance services for all football games (this came only because of a catastrophic injury)
7. Updated and created EAPs for every venue JH and HS as well as cold and heat weather policies, concussion policies, SCA policies, seizure policy (we have several students).
8. Worked with the school nurse to create a policy for one of our students (and a student trainer) getting a diabetic service dog.
9. Bought a new car (sometimes you just have to Treat Yo Self!)
10. Paid off 3 credit card (yes I have a tennis shoe addiction)
11. Lastly, I saved up enough money to travel to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in the summer 2020.

Now that I have written it down it seems that most of my major accomplishments have been worked related. Often times I joke around with my athletes and students about how I have no life and that I live for my work. This summer I did notice that this running joke was no longer a joke but was becoming my reality. So I made changes. I started saying “no” to things and making myself a priority.

To any new athletic trainers out there I will give you one piece of advice that I wish someone would have pressured me to learn. Your time is valuable. Do not give up your life for your job. My coaches and administration can attest that I make everyone aware of these two statements. My first year at KHS I went from coaches who would tell me last minute about practices and games (if they told me at all) and expect me to be there, to coaches who now must give me at least 24 hours notice of a practice or game change (there are exceptions). Let me also give you this little tidbit YPs; coaches, athletes, parents, bosses, and everyone else can survive without you. If you need a sick day- take it! Want to go to a concert? DO IT!

 As I always tell my coaches… “I am the one who certified you in First Aid/CPR/           Emergency management. I feel confident enough in you knowing the difference       between needing to call 911 and knowing an injury can wait until the next day.”

Now that I have started taking more time for myself I have actually fallen in love with my job more. I no longer go home worrying about something that I needed to do at work nor do I stress over things that I haven’t done at home. This year alone, I have found the time to read 35 books, watched countless tv shows and movies (can anyone say hello Disney +), seen plays (Hamilton & Frozen), ballets (Nutcracker) and plenty of other things not related work.

But this isn’t just something that I discovered overnight. It took me a long time and a lot of personal reflection to know that I needed to take care of myself. You see four years ago I was depressed. Like clinically diagnosed. I had a terrible job. My co-worker treated me like I was nothing more than a glorified typewriter who couldn’t tell the difference between a dislocated shoulder and a quad contusion. It sent me into a depression so deep that I contemplated quitting everything (yes I mean what you are thinking). But my dog of all ‘people’ saved me. I mean just look at this face how could it not make you happy?

Thankfully, I was able to find a graduate assistant position with a group of people that became like a sorta work family to me. I was able to get my depression better managed and so far life has just gotten better. But I have always been self-conscious and self-criticizing of myself. This year, however, it had to deal with something even worse. Everyone knows that there will always be people who do not like you. But this year I had to deal with the parent of a former student going on a rampage about me over social media. I’ve always been one who tries to do right and not upset anyone. I do my job and try to keep under the radar. But I had a parent who was not happy about the way I handled an injury (I followed all policies, procedures, and state laws) and how I ‘forced’ her child to see a physician for clearance, that she decided to go on a social media rant calling me names, degrading me, and humiliating me (I work in a small town; word travels fast). It was the lowest point in my career so far. Honestly, I cried that entire week and felt the familiar feeling of depression creep up on me.

But I say this all to point out that 2019 has had its highs and lows. That not everything is perfect. I try to remember that things will get better and that I need to stay humble when things seem great. I no longer take things for granted and I have started planning to live life to the fullest. So for the upcoming year, I am going to take life by the reins, as the saying goes, and do what I want to do. I am going to travel, read, write, and anything else I want to do.

And in the meantime, I am doing to leave you with a meme that pretty describes my life.

See ya 2019 and hello 2020!!!