Blog summery #1

I feel like throughout this class I have really started to understand what true leisure is and how it fits into my life. In my blog entry about rugby It shows how I could understand when I had leisure in my life through rugby and why that changed. It's because I know what the definition of leisure is that I feel that I can honestly evaluate leisure in my life. Also through understanding the definition of leisure it is easier to prove to another person why I consider my work to be leisure. Without the understanding of intrinsic motivation I couldn't really explain how my work is leisure. I feel however that I now need to focus more on the "sate of mind" aspect of the definition. I have never really reflected on my state of mind during my daily activities. I suppose everything can be leisure if you have the right state of mind but I will have to reflect further on this. The second aspect I would like to consider in my future blogs is my restraints to leisure apart from the obvious ones like money and time.

I truly value leisure that's why during my vacation I went camping and kayaking, a vacation alone isn't leisure unless your experiencing leisure during that vacation and I certainly was!

My revelation about what leisure really means to me

Wow! Who would have thought this class would make me realise the answer to a question about my life that I had never been able to find the answer to before.

I used to have more then just a passion for working with kids. I used to be a passionate rugby player. I started playing rugby at Vanier just because I had stopped doing competitive gymnastics and needed to stay in shape. Long story short I fell in love with Rugby! I played one season and then gave up my job at camp Kinkora to stay in Montreal so I could play club rugby all summer to improve my skills. My second season I was the hooker a very important position on the team. I played for 3 seasons with Vanier, one summer for TMR and Vanier became number one my second season when we beat John Abbott in the finals!! I realised that my passion wasn't just for the sport its self it was for the team! Its hard to explain... It was my first time playing a team sport and I experienced what I now know is true leisure like never before. I think the leisure was missing for many of my last years doing gymnastics and now I had found it again. I was intrinsically motivated I was playing for me not my mom.

Our team was a family, a big family all the guys and girls all our practices were together we were one team!

One day it all died. My second summer I joined TMR again but something was wrong. I was always finding excuses not to go to practice and I didn't know why. what I did know was that I was 20 years old and if I didn't want to play my mom wasn't going to force me. So just like that I stopped playing I quit TMR. Everyone was shocked all my friends and family couldn't understand. Whenever someone would ask me why I stopped they would say "but you loved it so much??" I was so embarrassed I never knew what to say because I never really knew why I quit. My passion for rugby just died and I didn't know why until today! This class has made it so clear, it was the leisure part of rugby that was gone. Playing with TMR wasn't like playing with Vanier. There was so much politics with coaching and the team was very divided. It was no longer fun. For me it was missing all the elements we learned about in class that make up leisure. I was no longer intrinsically motivated and I was no longer experiencing flow. When I started at Concordia I went to some winter practices but again it wasn't there. Rugby wouldn't be rugby without Vanier!

Thanks Steve!

My leisure this weekend 19-21

This weekend was a much better weekend then the last! Last weekend I spent Friday night in emergency and Sunday at the hospital visiting a friend... not to much leisure :(

This weekend however contained much more leisure! Friday I babysat the love of my life Justin! While I was changing his diaper I remembered what the woman in class had said about how changing diapers was leisure, I couldn't agree more!! Sometimes however when I'm on the 3rd poopy diaper it starts to feel a little less like leisure lol

N e ways the weather was great so we hung out played outside, took a nap had snacks, listened to music and danced (how I get my work out in)

After that Friday night I had a meeting at my church then went out to celebrate a friends birthday, saw tons of ppl I hadn't seen in ages. Saturday I went with my mom, her bf and my grandma to look at cottages. I can't wait for my mom to buy a cottage tons of leisure weekends up there partying with my friends! WAHOO!! Sunday I cleaned my apartment with my room mate, I do not consider that to be leisure! I hate cleaning! Sunday night a little more leisure diner with friends (a once a week ritual) So a great end to the weekend! Soon however the school work will take over and weekends will consist of working friday, sat, sunday and school work! Starting next weekend! I can't wait!

Camping in Victoria and Salt Spring

Kayaking in Ladysmith with Uncle Al

Summer fun!

I feel like in the summer we get to spend more time doing leisure activities then during the rest of the year....but do we really? When I was a kid summer was all about leisure! Nothing but leisure! All I did was play with my friends and go to camp. I remember when all that changed, I was 16 and got my first real job. from that summer on I was no longer a kid I have spent every summer since then working full time. Every summer it seems like working during the summer becomes more and more important. So I guess summer is no longer only for leisure, now I have rent to pay groceries to buy. Leisure and when I get to enjoy leisure has certainly changed over the years.

However I am happy to say I did get to spend three weeks this summer in BC with my Dad! That was finally some care free leisure time.

Daniel and his favorit thing to do at camp!

What is leisure for me?

So I guess an important question to ask myself is, what is leisure to me? Apart from the typical activities I consider to be leisure there are other things like my work that can feel like leisure a lot of the time. I have had the fortune of spending my last two summers working as the Special Needs Animator at Vanier SuperCamp. As well I work for WIAIH (West Island Association for the Intellectually Handicapped), Miriam Center and privately for families who have children with special needs. In all my work no matter how stressful some days can be there are always those moments when I connect with a child, or a light bulb goes off in their head and they have spelt the word cat for the first time, or they have been accepted by another "regular" kid at camp, or I'm pushing them on the swing and they are happier then ever. In all these breath taking moments my work becomes leisure for me. I all these kinds of moments there is nothing else I would rather be doing. That to me is leisure!

If only money didn't matter my work would be for free and then it would truly be seen by others as leisure.