Hello Hello!

Well, it has certainly been a long time since my last post and I do apologize for that!

However, I thought it would be fun to share what I have been up to lately particularly with my other career many of you may not know about. In addition to being a professional athlete, for the last year and a half I have been attending graduate school and working towards my Master of Science degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. I decided to start pursuing this other passion while still training/competing for a number of reasons. I am not a person that necessarily likes school, but I found that in my first year post-collegiate it just felt like something was missing and I struggled to create structure and have distraction from track. I had never experienced sport without school and it was really tough for me so I thought it would be a good idea to get going on my next academic goal. In addition to wanting the extra structure and distraction, I also wanted to be working towards a more guaranteed form of income. Being a female thrower in the United States are not necessarily helpful qualities as a professional athlete. When people in this country think of the word professional athlete, they often assume that a ton of money is made and that is just not the case in my event/sport. So, due to this I realized it was important for me to work towards financial security so I do not have added stress/pressure to my track career. Why Marriage and Family Therapy? I have also enjoyed working with people and initially thought I wanted to go into the medical field, but quickly realized I am not a fan of blood and needles! It was then that I thought about therapy. My mother is a middle school guidance counselor but I hadn’t thought about therapy in a different context. I realized a particular passion for working with couples so that is what I hope to specialize in after graduation. Another huge plus to being a therapist is the high amount of flexibility that the field can offer and this is so helpful when balancing my track career. Over the summer I took two classes as well as starting my internship. I was very nervous to start this because it is sort of the make or break it moment on liking the field and I am very pleased to say I love the work I am doing.

Hope everyone is having a great back to school time of year!