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I recently sat down with Jenn Ryan, IV and Injectable Therapy Nurse and legend in the CrossFit community, to talk about her passion for her new career path. Jenn’s been a nurse for many years and started working in emergency rooms in this field back in 2009. While she’s always been drawn to helping people, she said that she wanted to move beyond the “sick healthcare system that I already knew front to back” and get into the functional side of injectable therapy that can be more comprehensive in treating people. She started learning more about these treatments and educating herself and said, “that’s how I realized my passion was to be of value to people in a way that really helps them improve their lives.”
What struck me in our conversation was how excited Jenn was in embracing this new passion, but there’s a challenge she’s facing in getting others to accept this new identity and lead with it when they talk about her. She noted that she’s always loved being an athlete but that “it’s nice to have something else after my name, before just hearing CrossFit athlete.” Jenn said, “now I’m identifying as something different than athlete and it feels good, but it takes time, and I think making sure that you really love the other things that you identify as is so important.” She’s not alone in this challenge as many athletes navigate getting the community around them to accept how they are beginning to redefine themselves after sport.
This got me wondering…how can we as athletes get better at talking about ourselves in the new terms we want to define us AND how can we as a community get better at adopting this language to support athletes transitioning from their sport? I found that even in writing the opening line to this post that I had to resist the urge to lead with “CrossFit athlete” in Jenn’s description and to really honor this new passion she has in her career by noting that she’s an IV and Injectable Therapy Nurse first. If Jenn’s ready to begin leading with this in how she talks about herself, I should be able to recognize and repeat that as I share my experience in getting to know her.
As humans, we make meaning of things through language. Articulating our identity, especially when there’s a significant shift in our identity, can be such a daunting task. Thank you, Jenn, for reminding me that the words matter.
-Derika
I recently sat down with Jenn Ryan, IV and Injectable Therapy Nurse and legend in the CrossFit community, to talk about her passion for her new career path. Jenn’s been a nurse for many years and started working in emergency rooms in this field back in 2009. While she’s always been drawn to helping people, she said that she wanted to move beyond the “sick healthcare system that I already knew front to back” and get into the functional side of injectable therapy that can be more comprehensive in treating people. She started learning more about these treatments and educating herself and said, “that’s how I realized my passion was to be of value to people in a way that really helps them improve their lives.”
What struck me in our conversation was how excited Jenn was in embracing this new passion, but there’s a challenge she’s facing in getting others to accept this new identity and lead with it when they talk about her. She noted that she’s always loved being an athlete but that “it’s nice to have something else after my name, before just hearing CrossFit athlete.” Jenn said, “now I’m identifying as something different than athlete and it feels good, but it takes time, and I think making sure that you really love the other things that you identify as is so important.” She’s not alone in this challenge as many athletes navigate getting the community around them to accept how they are beginning to redefine themselves after sport.
This got me wondering…how can we as athletes get better at talking about ourselves in the new terms we want to define us AND how can we as a community get better at adopting this language to support athletes transitioning from their sport? I found that even in writing the opening line to this post that I had to resist the urge to lead with “CrossFit athlete” in Jenn’s description and to really honor this new passion she has in her career by noting that she’s an IV and Injectable Therapy Nurse first. If Jenn’s ready to begin leading with this in how she talks about herself, I should be able to recognize and repeat that as I share my experience in getting to know her.
As humans, we make meaning of things through language. Articulating our identity, especially when there’s a significant shift in our identity, can be such a daunting task. Thank you, Jenn, for reminding me that the words matter.
-Derika
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