Check out that Recreational Supervisor

Work has just been a straight line up in terms of learning curve. It ain’t a curve, it’s a vertical line up. Get a ruler, put it perpendicular to a flat surface. That’s Michael Li’s ‘learning curve’. And that will probably go on for approximately 6 months. I look forward to it. I sound bitter, but I know I will thrive in this environment =)

After work, I joined a program called ‘Get Active Fort Albany!’ It is run by a local worker. He explained his role, and how he is hired through the reserve and the Government of Ontario. Getting into how he gets his budget to operate his programs, is a gong show in itself. I don’t understand, and probably won’t ever.

So this ‘recreational supervisor’ (lets just call him RS) has an interesting story. He is originally from a reserve, but under a different band. Apparently, if you’re from a different reserve, people know. When does that happen in the city?! Usually, when you move into your new apartment/house, your neighbour doesn’t even know your name for at least a few months, let alone the entire community. Being from a different reserve, RS is already at a disadvantage, despite his Aboriginal status. He says that his education (high school graduate) is seen as a threat to a lot of the community residents. So, any opinion he has, or recommendations for change, gets shot down or sweeped under the carpet. If the community does not like you, they have the right to ban you from the community, and have the local police escort you out of the premises. It is all very interesting to hear about, but scary when I have to be careful on what I do or say.

A little background on this fellow…His high school education was in Sudbury, where he worked really hard to stay in because he got in through a northern heights basketball program, where only a selected few from the reserve can apply. During 12, he got exposed to basketball for the first time, and found that he really like it.

But he was a fat kid. Being 12, he weighed 200lbs. at a height of 5’. I don’t know if there is a spot for him on the BMI chart at the time. He knew that he was not going to be able to keep up with the other kids in his physique, so he started to work out, change his diet, practice his shooting technique in the mirror everyday, and now he is 6’3 at approx 160lbs. What determination eh? I am sure that this paragraph is something that is similar to a success story you read everyday, but listening to someone say it as their own is quite enlightening. It made me re-think what I have done in the past, to demonstrate such determination.

After being in the basketball program situated in Sudbury, he was on the high school team, which eventually qualified for the Ontario Federation Student Athletic Association (yea…its OFSAA). It’s a huge accomplishment when a school team qualifies for this tournament. They compete against schools around the province, and it is extremely competitive. RS made the basketball team 3 times in a row, and he is proud of it. He wasn’t a bench warmer either. He said he was either a starter or the first one off the bench. He says that looking back at his genetics, he was not given good genes at all. If he stopped to work out one day, just one day, there was a chance that he was would gain weight, that very day. Unbelievable.

His exact words were, ‘I know I don’t got no good genes, but that just means I gotta work three times harder than the rest. I always tell myself, hard work always beats talent. That’s what I am trying to teach these kids. Just hard work. That’s what I keep telling them. I’m not trying to make major changes in the front lines, cuz I’ll get shot down and kicked out. My goal is to get a team of kids into this OFSAA tournament, and let these kids have a taste of what its like to win, or know what’s out there, give them hope, give them a new perspective on life, I think I will have done my job.’

This coming from a 22 year old.