When the game ends,
who do you become?
For a long time, my answer to “What do you want to be?” was simple: a professional athlete. Finding a new answer took curiosity, uncertainty, and a willingness to make something with my own hands.
It wasn’t just what I did.
Growing up, I wanted to be an athlete. I trained, competed, and pushed myself to get better. That commitment took me to Simon Fraser University in Canada, where I played collegiate football.
Athletics gave my days structure and my effort a direction. It also became a large part of how I understood myself.
“Being an athlete wasn’t just something I did, it was who I was.”
Then the familiar answer changed.
Moving beyond football meant figuring out who I was outside the game. The routines, goals, and team environment that had felt so familiar were no longer the whole picture.
There wasn’t a perfect plan waiting on the other side. There was room to experiment, and the discomfort of not knowing exactly what would come next.
Apparently… make rugs.
I started making rugs. It sounds like an unexpected turn, and it was. But creating something with my hands gave me a familiar feeling: focus, practice, progress.
I could learn a technique, work through a mistake, and see an idea become something real. Making brought me back to curiosity.
“Discipline turned into consistency.
Competition turned into curiosity.
Structure turned into creativity.”
I didn’t lose those qualities.
I found new places for them.
The habits I built as an athlete still show up in my work: preparation, accountability, resilience, and care for the team around me.
Today, that energy goes into communications, design, websites, and community work. I like learning how things work, making them better, and seeing an idea become something people can use.
I’m still figuring things out. I show up, learn, and care about what I’m making. That’s a story I’m comfortable continuing.
Explore my workAdapted from my original “My Identity Crisis” essay.