The Inspiration of a Friend!

I had some injuries earlier on in my career that kind of hindered me from carrying on playing sports and participating in sports in the sports that I loved. And I attempted to make some comebacks thinking that I was fit and I was healthy and I was strong and I was good to go. And failed attempts as well just re-injured myself and stuff like that. So a friend of mine, team member last year from Invictus Toronto inspired the hell out of me. I still didn’t think that I was worthy to make this team so I didn’t even think to apply for the team. It wasn’t even a question in my mind that it was going to be the path that I would take. He got back from the games and he’s like, “Cory this is going to be good for you, it’s going to be good for your family, it will change your life!” I was like, “Jay it’s not for me man, it’s not for me, there’s other people more deserving.” But he kept telling me, “You deserve it, you deserve it, you earned it, you know, twenty year military career, why wouldn’t you deserve it, why wouldn’t you have earned it? ” So he broke me down. I sat at his house one day. We went through the application process and it was something else because it was like four questions. Didn’t have to provide pictures or long list of military qualifications, it was just four simple questions regarding Soldier On and Invictus and you only had two hundred characters to answer them, each question. So my friend’s wife being a teacher, she was able to help me narrow this down to make it sound somewhat legible and somewhat intelligent. We sat down and went through those questions and it really just boiled down to this is going to help me take care of my family.

I was getting to a point in my life where I wasn’t proud of the father I was. I wasn’t proud of the husband I was or the person I was becoming. It didn’t really hit me at first what or how much this journey was going to affect me. The one thing I keep telling myself this is not about the medals. It’s not about the medals. I have set personal goals for myself. One I am close to achieving so hopefully if I time it right I can achieve it at the games. The other one is I might have overstepped my capabilities but I am hoping I can hammer it. I am ecstatic about getting down there not just for myself but for my team mates and meeting all these other people, members and athletes from other countries, you know, and getting to see what their experiences are and what their challenges were and what has helped them and maybe making some lifelong friends around the globe. Again, just over the moon.