Throughout my life I have been told, find something that you enjoy and find something that will benefit you as well as others. I really have not taken this statement to my heart until I got the opportunity to sit down with Candy Vander Wal, athletic trainer at Shiloh Christian School. The whirlwind of all the games that take place at the school, I had never realized what role Candy played a part of and all the hard work she does to help student athletes. Once we started to talk, I began to realize that, although I am only a senior in high school, I could see myself enjoying being an athletic trainer someday or just entering the sports medicine line of work. During our conversation, Candy taught me that finding something you enjoy can benefit not only you but others too. She also shared her hard-won wisdom and advice on becoming/practicing to be an athletic trainer.
Candy tries to always stay on her toes as she is watching games or
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To her she always had a calling to be involved with sports and that it was something that always interested her. She told me being a trainer is generally considered a hard line of work, dealing with long hours, and sometimes the sadness of telling an athlete that they cannot play anymore is very hard. Through experiences and commitment, a trainer learns to take each day as it comes and grows with it. Even though all the dedication of long hour days working around the clock watching games and taking care of athletes can be very stressful and could be even mentally and physically draining, trainers can never forget that athletes still need help. For Candy, when athletes are demanding to be taped, or are pretending to have an injury they could be stressed about the situation they are in or is in need of a friend to talk to. She believes that it is her job to always help out an athlete in some way, either mental or