How many of you have gone out of your comfort zone when it comes to this profession? I know I definitely have. When I started working on my own, I had never driven a gator or golf cart before, I knew nothing about field hockey, and I hated baseball. However, my first job was at a high school. Therefore, I was working all the sports and had to learn how to drive our very old golf cart. I learned that the golf cart was touchy, and that it didn't start driving right away. You had to press the gas a few times for it to actually start moving. I learned that field hockey has a lot of ridiculous rules, there's a lot of stop in play, there's only one side of the stick you can use, and even though they wear masks, there can be concussions and broken noses (because the "masks" only protected the eyes). Baseball was a hard sport to enjoy. Most of my adult life I couldn't care less about the sport. When I was younger, I was actually a huge Yankees fan. But since I have grown up, I have hated baseball. It's boring, it's long, and there's way too many games. I worked my first high school baseball game when I first started as an AT at the high school I got my first job at. It was grueling. My student-athletes didn't want me around because I complained about it so much. I didn't know the rules, I didn't care. I was out of my comfort zone here because I just didn't have any interest. (Not that field hockey or girl's lacrosse was that much more exciting, but I could bare it a little more...) The players finally realized that they needed to make it more exciting for me, so any time something happened that I didn't know what was going on, they would teach me. Of course I knew what a home run was and what a ball and strike were. But when it came to if it was an error or a hit, I had no clue. They taught me more and more and I learned a lot more. I still thought the sport was boring, but at least I knew what was going on more than just the score.
When I got my current job with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, I felt as though my baseball players at the high school kind of prepared me for this. I still couldn't stand the sport, and now working with professional athletes was out of my comfort zone, but at least I could hold my own talking about the game. However, in the beginning of my time with the team, my comfort zone was challenged. I was the only female in the clubhouse. I got a lot of crap from the boys in the beginning of the season. I was very timid and didn't know how I should take their jokes. I understood that most of them never had a female in the clubhouse, and I don't think their jokes were intentionally hurtful or rude. However, I did feel uncomfortable at first because of it. Other things that were out of my comfort zone was dealing with professional players rather than high schoolers. I realized that they had to be treated a lot differently. I obviously didn't have to call their parents every time they got hurt. I had to deal with workers comp which I had never had to deal with before. All of it was so nerve wracking in the beginning. But then you find your groove.... I figured out that even though these were professional baseball players, they still acted like high school boys sometimes, so I could still be stern with them when needed and they understood I meant business. Even though I was the only female, they got used to me, and I got used to being around them. The whole process of us getting used to each other took maybe about a week. But that was the longest week of my life. About mid season is when I could honestly say I was comfortable in my current position.
The below article is about another female in professional baseball. Her name is Tara O'Haire and she's from Ireland. She has been with the Oakland A's for an internship this year. She has never seen baseball in her life. Talk about being out of her comfort zone! It's a pretty cool story, so take a look! Also, have any of you been out of your comfort zone? Let's talk about it! I think we could learn a lot about ourselves by sharing stories like this.
http://www.sfgate.com/athletics/article/Irish-athletic-trainer-makes-most-of-A-s-7210035.php
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