by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
COBDEN — Get out of your comfort zone is the best thing a person can do if they want to experience life and go beyond what they believe their limits, encouraged Melissa Bishop, an Olympian and former student at Opeongo High School.
She was the guest speaker to about 350 Renfrew County high school students Wednesday morning in Cobden at the Agricultural Hall.
Jacqueline Poirier, Student Success Leader for the Renfrew County District School Board (RCDSB), said Grade 11 students from the seven high schools have an opportunity to participate in Specialist High Schools Majors. In this program, students can identify an economic sector they are interested in, take a certain number of courses and co-op credits towards that focus area, as well as do certifications in that sector, she explained.
“Today was the kick-off for a chance to do one certification or a reach-ahead activity to learn more about the sector they are thinking of learning more about,” she explained. “If they get the right amount of credits and certifications at the end of by Grade 12, they graduate with a Red Seal Diploma, which means they have this extra concentrated focus on a certain sector.”
Ms. Poirier said there are many sectors, including transportation, hospitality and tourism, forestry, horticulture, construction, and health and wellness.
The workshops were held throughout Cobden, including at the arena, Legion, medical centre, churches, Civitan hall and at the boardwalk.
Prior to heading to their various workshops, Ms. Bishop spoke to them.
She recalled when she was in her first 400M race at the Legion Nationals. While she had been the dominant racer in her local area, she was sure a first-place spot was guaranteed for her at this event as well.
“In this race, I had someone to chase, she was ahead of me the whole time and I thought I was the best,” Ms. Bishop recalled. “I had to catch her, I wanted to win. I ran out of my skin, out of my comfort zone. I didn’t win the race. I came second.”
However, while her father helped her back to where her family was sitting, she remembers crying.
“I cried after that race because that’s the first time I felt out of my body,” she said. “I hurt so bad, the first time feeling lactic acid.
“I remember the girl who won looking at me sideways because I was crying. From that point, that moment of uncomfort, I have identified as a runner.
“There is a moment in everyone’s life that you self-identify – in a sport, in a job.”
Ms. Bishop realized she had what it took to be a runner, but it was an 800M runner, not a 400M runner.
“I have been running the 800M since I was 16,” she said. “It’s taken me over a decade, and many 800M races to tell you that I am officially an 800M runner.
“I’ve had incremental growth in this event since the age of 16, having experienced injury, failure, success and now a top world ranking.”
Throughout life, there will always be decisions, she said. It’s important to have a Plan A and a Plan B, she said.
“Sometimes you don’t know you’re on that path until you’re already there,” Ms. Bishop said. “Life happens, it gets in the way.”
Having attained the status of a runner throughout her high school years at Opeongo and as a member of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club, she decided in the second semester of Grade 12 to transfer to an Ottawa high school since she wanted to earn a full running scholarship to an American university where she would study to become a teacher.
She was being courted by universities, but that stopped when she became seriously injured.
“I was put in a walking cast and as soon as the schools in the states found out I was injured, all the calls stopped coming in,” Ms. Bishop said.
However, she had a Plan B, and so had applied to one Ontario university – the University of Ottawa. While it the wasn’t the program she wanted, and she was already in Ottawa living on her own, she decided it was the route for her.
By the end of Year One, she knew this school’s program wasn’t for her. She also wasn’t enjoying running anymore, it was just a habit.
Ms. Bishop then applied to three Ontario universities and in the end chose the University of Windsor.
“It had the program of choice that I wanted and a teachers college,” she said. “And the other reason being that this school has a very long-standing history of a strong track and field program led by the head coach, Dennis Fairall, who is now my coach.”
Ms. Bishop said she stepped outside of her comfort zone when she began a fresh start in a city seven hours away.
However, it was the best decision she ever made. Although she has now graduated from university, Mr. Fairall is still her coach and she still lives in Windsor.
In 2011, she decided to start her Masters in Human Kinetics, having already earned her teaching degree. However, she was much better running the 800M and was close to realizing her dream of becoming an Olympian.
In that summer, she competed in a racing circuit in Europe and upon returning home, sat down with her coach, her fiancée and her family.
“We made a really big decision,” Ms. Bishop said. “My dream of being an Olympian was slowly closing. With the London 2012 Olympics only a year away, I knew I had to give myself a full shot of making the team.
“I deferred my masters degree, meaning I could put it off for one year and still come back and start in the fall.
“I put all my eggs into one basket, trained full time, didn’t work, just run, eat, sleep and recover for one full year in an attempt to make the team.
“I knew in my heart I couldn’t live with the decision of not actually trying to make the team. I didn’t want to be 20 years down the road and say I wish I would have done this.”
Her hard work paid off, and she made the 2012 Canadian Olympic team.
“I went into that Olympic games with the assumption that I would do well. I assumed I would get to the semi-final, I assumed that I would run fast.
“Wrong. I failed to make it out of the first round. I ran 10 seconds slower than my fastest time. As I look back now, I was not prepared.”
Five years later, Ms. Bishop is a career runner. She has much more experience and proudly admits that she had a breakthrough last year despite being faced with multiple injuries.
“I won the Canadian record,” she said. “I am a Pan-Am Gold medallist. I am a world championship silver medallist. This year I went into my second Olympic games and finished fourth, ending the season with the fourth fastest time in he world.”
Behind Ms. Bishop on the overhead screen, the words Life Begins at the end of your comfort zone appear.
She admits she is not always successful in her races, but she does know that she never wants to feel the defeat like she did in the 2012 Olympic games.
“I didn’t want to be just another competitor,” Ms. Bishop said. “I wanted to be feared, like I once feared the girls in my first Olympics.”
This quote, she points to the screen, is what she lives by. She lives outside her comfort zone because if she didn’t, there would be no effort in her life.
“Staying in my comfort zone would be going for a nice easy run with no real effort put in, then going home to sit on my couch and eat junk food and do nothing the rest of the day,” she said. “Outside of my comfort zone, my run has effort, I’m gasping for air at the end of it. I feel like I’m going to throw up sometimes. I push myself so hard.”
Everyone’s comfort zone is different, Ms. Bishop said. For some it could be talking to professionals to see what career path they should take, she said.
She recalls when she came out of her comfort zone to do television commercials for her sponsor Nike.
“I went into my first shoot not knowing a single thing about what went on or how it would work,” Ms. Bishop said. “I thought it would take a few hours, run a few times and BAM, commercial done.”
But, it wasn’t quite like that, she said after the students watched her video. It was six hours of running back and forth trying to hit the X on the ground so the photographer could take the perfect photo; or making sure the light is just right when she runs.
Ms. Bishop said when a person is choosing their career, there are many options, not just the chosen one. As an example, she said for Nike staff involved in the photo shoot, there are the marketing directors, athlete directors, managers, people involved in making the video, hair and makeup, clothing designers, photographer and assistants and people behind the scenes moving equipment.
For the high school students who are choosing a career, Ms. Bishop encouraged them to talk to their teachers and guidance counsellors; take advantage of any co-op programs; job shadow.
“There is zero harm in asking questions and talking about what you want your future to look like,” she said.
“Have options.
“But most importantly, live outside your comfort zone,” Ms. Bishop stressed. “Get comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s okay to choose the path less chosen.”
