Hey, this is Sandy. And Randy? And we're here on at Corner. Being an Athi trainer comes with ups and downs, and we're here to showcase it all. Join us as we share our world in sports medicine. Welcome back to another episode of AT Corner. For this week's episode, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day with some stories. So we've done this episode a couple of times before. It's been a while, but we're taking a little different Ave. this time.
We are still talking about love. We're still talking about dating in the woes of being an athletic trainer. But beyond love, we're also talking about support systems, very important people in our life, maintaining relationships while being in an athletic trainer and got to put in some love stories. Of course, the loved ones of a TS. Including our love story. Loved ones of a TS is not not an easy task.
No, I definitely. Actually, the first thing I I did ask on our Instagram stories to put together these stories for this week was how tough is dating in the profession of athletic training? Yes. And I I assume you know what the answer is going to be, so I did a slider. The one side was easy peasy and the other side was near impossible. Is there a category past the near impossible? Or so most people put the slider. I mean the average answer. The average answer was actually
3/4 of the way towards near. Impossible. Yeah, I just say that sounds power. Yeah, I feel like we can all disagree on that. Yeah, for sure it it definitely can be because of the schedule and like just the nature of the job makes it tough. We did we I actually did go into that, but I also asked this with your non romantic relationships like your friends, how hard is it to maintain a friendship while being an athletic trainer?
I. Was going to say my question would be how many of your friends are also a TS? That's a that's a good question, although I feel like is that harder because is it harder to get more people together with crazy schedules? But I feel like you, I feel like you understand the schedule, so you're more willing to go with the craziness. OK, see that those are all good
points. So. So it seemed to be the general consensus that everyone who answered thought that it was not as impossible as dating, but still closer to the near impossible. Yeah, I can see that. More maybe a lot lot like toward that 5560% towards near impossible. OK, so these VI PS these very important people. So who are these people? Most people answered their friends and their parents, surprisingly. OK, like it. I'm sure being a parent of an
athletic trainer is interesting. I feel like they're at a certain level, there's probably just acceptance that their schedule's impossible and they're not going to be at a holiday function and. Yeah, yeah. Or they're always gone. I feel like there's a. Lot of yeah, because we do work a lot of holidays. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of acceptance, right? So I could see that.
I think it also depends, like if you work like in sports, for example, and if you work on like Thanksgiving, yeah, if you come from a sports family, they can be like, oh, I understand. If you don't come from a sports family, they're probably going to be like, why are you working on Thanksgiving? That's illegal. OK, who else do you think are people said are there very important people in their life who they show love to? I was surprised that was
actually the next. So friends, parents and then Co workers. Again, I think it's. Like this is outside of of your partner. Yeah, I think it's again just like you're if anything you're always around that person anyways or like work closely together. So it's like you have the chance for built in friendship now if you don't like each other. I mean a little bit different, but I feel like your Co workers actually know so much about your day-to-day life.
I feel like you give so much of your exactly 'cause you see them all the time. So even someone who you're really close to that you don't necessarily catch up with all the time. They're they're not getting those minute details that your Co workers are getting every single day. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, for. Sure. So yeah, Co workers are important siblings. I was surprised that siblings ranked so low. Like I thought like friends and
siblings would kind of be equal. Yeah, that is kind of. Interesting. People also said they're kids and then mentors. Those are all the top answers. No pets. We did get pets, but they weren't, it wasn't like a top answer. I I put in a couple other ones, other ones that I liked. These ones weren't popular, but the other ones that I liked dogs. Yeah. Coaches wives. That's fair. Other A TS and former professors. Oh OK, OK that's fair. I'm surprised dogs didn't get
more. Yeah, only like a couple people submitted dogs. Interesting. Our dog is our VIP. Oh yes, and she reminds us that she is as well. She's sleeping right next to us right now, but she'll you'll probably hear her in this episode. So, yeah. So how do you show love to your VIPs? Who are your VIPs, Randy? Like outside of me? I mean, I assume me, right? You both yeah, definitely a pup like my my cohort like from from school we we try to keep in touch and then. So like your friends?
Yeah, a lot of times, yeah, just Co workers. Those are the people like you, mostly. Four more Co workers, right, right. Yeah. Yeah, Co workers friends. Yeah, same mentors. Yeah, definitely mentors for sure. How do you show love to your VIP is something that I've really taken to recently is it's sometimes it's really hard to like reach out to people 'cause you just like. It's hard. Yeah, yeah. You're like, I don't have time reach out when you think of them.
That's a good idea. Because all you have to do is say hi, Like, hi, I'm thinking of you. Oh, thank you. I'm thinking of you too. What's up, big dog? And then if it turns into something, if you want to turn into something more than there you go. Some people said when you're actually with them, be present with them, be off your phone, leave work at work. Yeah, that's nice. Oh, you want to read this one from Stephanie B? Yes, she says, you have to take advantage of your day off.
Absolutely. All you want to do is relax, but just do one thing with someone and make sure to touch base through social media or a phone call slash text once a week. That's a good idea. I think one of the biggest things that when I was putting this episode together, one of the biggest things that I was realizing about like just people and like the people who we love is they really enrich your life so much. Even like for introverts, because I know obviously introverts, like they need to
have their alone time. But like, there's something about having people around you and who support you and who know you, who see you. Who understand that you introvert? Exactly exactly. I also asked how do your people support you? Some people said they plan like once a week plans. They come to the games. They're OK with their weird weird schedules I think. That one's huge. I think you need someone that understands that you just don't
work nine to five. Yeah. And that also that like things change and it's like not your like your control. It just happens like you weren't supposed to practice at this time, but all of a sudden you are right. Like it just I. Don't know right right. One of my best friends is an escape room designer and she literally every single time I hang out with her I literally get off work late. Like every single time. Actually someone someone said overestimate the time you'll be home.
That's pretty good. I mean, that's a really like good way to because then it's always a positive, like, oh, I'm home early, right? Yeah. Like when I make plans, like every single time I think about making these plans, especially with her because I'm like, oh, I'm late every single time we make plans like that's a, that's a good. That's a good idea. Mm. Hmm. Having a safe place to vent. That's nice. Have have someone hear you out? Yeah.
Feel heard. Oh. You want to read this one from Alex F. Yes, even as a student, my wife and family were so supportive. My first ever clinical rotation was at a high school and we made it to the state championship game in football. My family drove 4 hours just to see me on the sidelines and cheered for our team as if they've been lifelong fans. It helped that we won and my family got to see me in action on the field. Sadly for my first ever spine board experience. Oh, lovely.
Every time something like that happens, you're like, man, I'm so glad you got to see me in action. But also like. That really sucks. I really. Wish that that didn't happen, you know what I mean? The athlete The athlete turned out great and all he could do was ask about winning the championship. That's great. Whatever clinical rotation I had after that, they would also look for games on TV or live streams just to see me.
When I was with an NFL team for the summer, they flew close to 1500 miles just to support and see me on the sidelines for a preseason game. They cheered for me and my other summer interns when we came out of the tunnel. It just shows how much they want us all to succeed. Moral of the story, I know I wouldn't be where I am today without my support system and family. Yeah, for sure. I remember when I was a student, like some of our games would be streamed.
Like I remember 1 was when I was doing women's basketball as a rotation. We were playing one of our rivals and it was televised on ESPN. Well, like ESPN.com, it was streamed and we got video of me on on the sideline, on the bench. That is really cool. It is pretty cool. I gotta I gotta find this video. Yeah, my parents are pretty stoked about it. I bet that is pretty cool. Hey, I used to when you during your rotations for like football, I used to cheer for the AT staff coming out.
Yes, you did. I mean, you still come to all my games. Yeah, but this time I'm not in the stands. I'm like. You know you're on the sidelines. I give VIP access now. No, our AD puts you to work. Yes, he does. I think that's my payment for being on on the sidelines. He loves it when you come. Yes, he does. He usually just kind of waves me over and I'm like, oh Nope. Time, time to work. Honestly, this is like such a even even like his family who
like couldn't fly out. Yeah, like they're able to still find him on the on the TV, like live streams or like whatever. That's really cool. And honestly, like if you work in sports, a lot of times you are going to be live streamed. Yeah, there's at some point there's going to be some video of you doing something right, right. Lose you when you least expect it to. Alberto H says I'm I'm supported by having a place to vent with my spouse. It's usually around dinner time.
I used to do this with my monthly sessions with my psychiatrist, but I've graduated from there for now. I also vent to my colleagues and my best friend. We usually talk during my ride home from work. Honestly, car phone calls are the best. Like I think that's the best time to catch someone is like when they're driving home. Yeah. True, especially if you have a long drive. Right, right. And it helps the time. I mean, I don't know about you guys.
I don't really like to drive. So it helps the time go by for me. Oh, here's the thing. I don't like to drive, but I like talking on the phone. So those are two good, two good things for me. Like those go hand in hand. But like, if you do like to drive but you don't like being on the phone with people, I guess that wouldn't be good for you. Yeah, I mean, but. Do you do you do? You I don't like being on the phone. I don't know why you don't like being on the phone.
I like phone calls. See that? I feel like that's the perfect way to to catch up with. Someone it is so I do it but. It's not your. Favorite. I'm not a phone call guy, right? So back to what we were starting, what started this whole episode, some challenges around dating as an AT without just like don't look, just think about I can. Already tell and tell you what that answer. Is you didn't? Do you know what I'm going? To ask what's? The biggest challenge?
Dating schedule. Yeah, unknown schedule. Schedule changes last minute. And I was going to say the schedule changes I'm sure is probably like one of the biggest inconveniences because like I feel like if you don't understand athletic training or even athletics just in general, like I feel like it's hard to grasp the idea that like. You're not putting your work first. Yeah, that like work just changes. Like, like it's not 9:00 to 5:00, right?
It's not like you go to an office, you clock in for the day and clock out. Even at the injury prevention job that I was doing that was supposedly clock in, clock out, there were still like changes and things that I had to. Like last minute, like, yeah, it's not like you can do. And also you're not like at a job where you can like necessarily just be like, no, I'm not doing that because like they need you there in a lot of places, you're the only AT or
like one of the few a TS there. So if you're not there, it's like nothing's going to, nothing can happen or it's a huge liability. So it's like you can't just be like, Oh, no, I'm not doing that. I'm going to call in. I'm just going to call in sick. Like, you know, I so like if you don't have someone who understands that, they're just probably like really confused, like, well, why do you why does work do that? What? Yeah, you. You got to have someone who understands.
Yeah, at least it may not be happy with, but at least can understand it. #2 answer people submitted was a long days slash exhausted after the after your day. That's fair. He's like, you come home from work sometime. Especially like after I work a game. If I can work a game, I don't want to do anything afterward. That's how I feel. I mean, I mean, yours are football days. So those are that's a day. Yeah, I'm like, we can go out and like, sit down at a restaurant maybe, but like.
And that's just like AI feel like that's like a post game debrief, not just a. Quality time, No, no, no. Like if I had to like date someone and be on my like best put my, put my best foot forward, my best face forward, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I know for sure. So I could. Yeah, you could see that being a problem. Right. The next one was actually about meeting people. I'm sure it's hard. Yeah.
I mean, if you have like, unknown schedules and then you don't do things outside of work, like you're exhausted after a long day, you come home or like, you want your weekends to yourself. So then you don't go do things. And like, where you gonna meet people? I know this is gonna sound really really random, but I had this like weird like feeling that I was gonna meet my future
husband at a grocery store. I. Remember. You saying like, I don't know why I just like pictured like, oh, that's like where I'm going to meet them. I have no idea why I remember you which funny story when you texted me the first time I was checking out at the grocery store. So made it happen. I mean, maybe it was in my head, but. I told them to do that. Do you want to tell the story of how we met? Is it time? Are we ready? Sure. I think you tell You tell better
than I tell. So so I was bored one day I was just chilling at home chilling on the couch and went to Instagram and this I guess this is how old I am because I guess it's not called this anymore but I went on the explore page. That's very fitting, by the way. And all of a sudden I just saw this this picture, it was her. And she like had it split in half with like her acceptance letter into her, her school's at the training program, which is pretty local, so.
And it's not the school that Randy went to, cause for some reason everyone thinks that we went to the same school. And I was like, oh, cool, like, hey, maybe I know this person. I opened up a picture and I was about it, about it. So I was like, oh, I, I, I need to see if I can contact her. But see, I kept a class. I didn't I didn't like DM her.
So I wasn't going to post this picture because it was, it was my, it was a picture in my interview and I just took like a quick selfie and like my eye was like half open. About it. And then I was like, I really want to post that I got in and I want like I but I and I have this only one picture and I was like, whatever, I'm just going to post it. I don't no one's going to notice my eye. Apparently you didn't notice my eye. I saw the most beautiful girl in the world. I'm just saying.
So I reached out to one of the guys in, in my cohort who is 'cause I, I, I think I saw you were kind of involved with like student committee stuff and I kind of involved. So he was. So I was like, hey, do you know this? Person. Yeah, 'cause he stalked me on Instagram. Yeah. And I was like, hey, do you, do you know her? And I just got yeah, I mean, do you can do you have her contact? Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Cool. So then I messaged another buddy of mine who went to the same school as. As me.
As you and at the time he was actually doing grad school in Ohio, so he's like two time zones away. And funny story, that's actually the school that we're doing our doctorate now. Yeah. And I, I hit him up. I said, hey, do you you know her? And he was like, oh, yeah. I was like, hey, can you hook it up? Hey, he hooked it up. Yeah, he didn't slide in my DMS. I did. I kept it classy. He went on a wild goose chase. I guess he went on a he went on a hunt. Yeah, I was about it.
Yeah, he had to track me down. And I did. So then I'm teaching ballet on a Saturday morning and I'm going to go change my music. I, I was teaching like, I don't know, some mid level ballet, so like 88 to 10 year old somewhere around there. And I went to go change the music and I noticed that I got a text and it says something about like, Hey, congratulations from Aaron from our friend in Ohio. And he was like, and we live in California, by the way.
So like literally like far, far away a couple of times. So I'm like, I noticed this text and it says, Hey, congratulations on getting in the program, you know, whatever it said and it said, hey, so I think my friend thinks you're cute. So then I didn't know what to do with that information. And I was like, and I, I immediately started smiling like that.
Like I was very flattered. So then I'm like smiling at my phone and my, and of course all my little ballerinas are like, why are you smiling at your phone, Miss Sandra? That's pretty funny. Yeah. And then I was like, yeah, OK, you can give him my number. So then he gave him my number. I was at then I was at the grocery store later that day. I think it was later that day that then I got a text from you. Yeah. And there you go. And there you go. And then we and then we start dating.
I went on a blind date 'cause I had no clue who this guy was. But he was vetted by Aaron. Aaron said he was a good guy, yeah. Passed. Good old Aaron Norr, actually. We had him on Offset Med episode, yeah. I feel like that was a while ago. A long like a. Long time ago, huh? I think our first or second season. I think you're right man. Time flies, you're having fun. Seriously.
So yeah, there are lots of challenges and we had, we've had some challenges that Randy used to work at a a mid, mid level D1. Yeah, Mid Major. And he was gone, literally gone from like Wednesday through Sunday every single week. Yep, and 60. Hour weeks, too. And I was working in down in one county and then I was working two hours away in another county. And then like we were back and forth. So that so like that first year of me being certified. Oh yeah.
Which was, I mean, I met when you and I were, or when you and I met. I was 20. Yeah. So that was. And that was like, right when I was. So I was still an observation student. Yep. You were just about to. Start and Randy had Randy had already been certified? Yep. When I met him. Yep. I just got. Certified. I never knew you as a student. Nope. Nope. I was. I lived in the clinic. Yes. That was that was what everyone told said about me. Yeah, that I know everyone.
Every time everyone met me, they were like, oh, you're the one who got him out of the clinic. Yep. Uh huh. Yep. So Alberto H says it's tough to date. I think any relationship will always take some work. However, I am fortunate enough to have a partner who played softball in college and understands the grind. Because this my spouse has noticed when I'm stressed, burnt out, or other AT related issues, the most challenging thing I've ever had to deal with is the financial and overworking
meaning being burnt out. I've never dealt with seeking professional help and once I did, I finally understood what I can work on in getting the tools to help me cope with the situations that I had and overcome those barriers. That really helped me gain perspective on how to be a better person and partner overall. Oh, that's nice. Honestly if you're not happy in your own life, it's hard to be happy in a relationship like romantic or non romantic. 'Cause you gotta be there, you
gotta be supportive. Right, right. And I I mean sometimes like those people around you can help you towards that, but you also have to do some work on your own too. Yeah, for sure. And then if you have like work dragging on you too, like. That's hard. And then life is heavy just. Yeah. It all, it all piles up. Yeah. You want to read this one from Lena H. Yes, I met my now fiance on Bumble. He's a pilot. We both have odd work schedules with me being out of high school
and him at the airlines. I think the fact that neither of us have jobs with quote UN quote normal hours makes it so much easier. We're both more understanding how demanding our jobs can be. Exactly, that's what. You were talking about. Earlier. Yeah, Also a pilot. That's cool. I know, isn't that really cool? That's cool. It's like super random. Yeah, actually, yeah, that is kind of that is kind of. Random I don't know any like do I know any pilots? No, I, I don't.
I I don't. Yeah, free flights. I mean, that's how you meet them I guess. Bumble. Just they're out there somewhere. There are pilots there. There are pilots. They might be they have to go grocery shopping, so they might be at the. You know what? That is true, they do have to do normal. Things, I think that's kind of why I thought like, you know. You're right, everyone has to get food at some point. Right. Like how am I going to meet people outside of my bubble?
Like even like if you go out like. You know what that. Is you still kind of stay in your bubble, you know, like when you're going grocery shopping, like just imagine. Well, that's what I was going to say. I think that that's the hard part too about meeting people is like when you're not in school anymore, like you're not in like a predefined area where you're going to meet people, right? Like you're not in class, right? You're not working on like, you're just kind of.
Like you don't have like the common areas, like oh, there's the fountain. I'm going to go study by the. Fountain and no one wants to talk to like random people. Right, I was actually, what was I listening to?
I was just listening to, Oh, I was listening to a different podcast, Diary of Aceo actually, and they were talking about how like just meeting people, like in general, not just like dating, but just like we're Airpods are like killing that, like Airpods and like like any Airpods and like I wear Airpods when I'm going out somewhere. Like it's but like it makes sense. Like you used to have, like, you're just kind of sitting and just waiting around. Nothing's taking your attention away.
Yeah. And then now when someone tries to talk to you, or you know, it's kind of weird, like, oh, why are you trying to talk? To me, Well now I'm hoping for a shout out from Diary of a CEO. I really like that podcast. Yeah, we shouted them out. Shout out AT Corner. Natalie H says I met my now husband in high school. Oh, that's cool. I knew early on in our relationship I wanted to be an AT.
We were both athletes in high school and he went on to compete in college so he understood what an AT was. We went to two different colleges but he stuck by me through undergrad and especially during getting my MSAT. It was hard finding time for each other but we made it work. Now living together and married. He's my biggest supporter and I could never do this job without him.
He works in corporate finance which does make it easier not to bring work home since he works 8:00 to 5:00 and as a secondary setting ATI work 2:00-ish to who knows when. I want to be fully present. Fully present when I get home and not have work tasks to do. Like the 2:00-ish to. Who knows? Who knows? A time. Right. I think that is something that like obviously our works in the traditional setting kind of depend on the coverage that we have to provide. And those coverages depend on
the coaches. And if the coaches are around for a long time or if they leave and a new coach comes in, or even if the same coach is there and they change their practice time because they don't want like something else is going on. And they just, you know, there, there are often times that Randy and I have the same schedule and then there are times for months. So we have opposite schedules. And then we're like, oh, it's going to, we're going to have same same schedule again.
And then it's opposite again I think. I think a lot of it is like, I feel like your schedule's fairly consistent during like fall. It is, but it's getting, it's going to have a major change since next fall because we're our football used to be. So I used to work like I'd get in around like 11 or noon and stay until like 8 or 9. And now I am switching that and we're starting treatments. Who knows? 5:36 AM to get sounds terrible.
So I'm I'm excited. I can't wait for morning stuff, but I just don't know how many people are going to show up. But like I feel like, like mine, like it literally comes like one, one month on or like a couple months on this time and then all of a sudden team changes practice, 'cause like I like I have like 9 teams so there's like 9 opportunities for it to change, right? Whereas like in the fall, I really only have one team, but it's football.
So it's like, well, if they they went for years in the evening and now they're trying it out in the morning and if they can keep it in the morning, I think everyone kind of wants it in the morning. So like that would be cool. Then I would know what my falls are. But I don't know are they? We don't know some. I asked also for some tips on how to maintain a romantic relationship as an AT overarching theme communication. Weird working working with humans.
It comes back down to communication. Yeah, some other ones prioritizing time with your partner, boundaries. Make your job boundaries with your job slash learning to say no. Make lots of plans ahead of time, Kirsten M said. Make plans, have shit down or it won't happen. Plans may change, but that's not new for either partner. Also having plans sometimes is the thing that gets you out of picking something up, which can be helpful for boundaries.
Yes, honestly, this is super true because like I'm more likely to pick up a like a Saturday game. If I'm like, oh, I've got nothing going on this weekend like sure, I can I can do that, but like if I have like, oh man, I was going to go to whatever with this person. Is there a way that like we can change this and like, you know, so I'm going to have a little bit more of a boundary of like no, for sure. And then I get to go do whatever plans that is instead of, you know what I mean?
We we also are in a position where like there's more than one athletic trainer. So like. Yeah, that's nice. And you're not like the only one, right? Someone's this is one of the top answers to at least put your things on shared calendars. That's fair. Like make a shared calendar. That's fair. You want to read this? But some people aren't great with digital calendars or calendars. Yeah, I think I've shared this before, but I made this like nice Google Calendar.
I put everything on there and one time like literally for years, like I've been using this and I don't know how I knew that didn't know this, but I was like, hey, Mandy, can you just update the calendar real quick? I don't like he he was like scrolling through his phone and I was like, you know, not thinking much of it, like kind of looking over like why is this taking so long? But you know, whatever. Did you have the app downloaded? Yes, I did.
OK, did you know how to get into the No, his Google Calendar, he wasn't signed in. So he didn't even have like he didn't even, I mean, he had access, but like he didn't even have the login, like whatever. Yeah. I had to log back in. We logged out. And I was like, how have you digital? Digital candle calendars are hard. But he's, he's actually, he used to never use any sort of agenda at all. That's right. I have a planner now he's got a planner. I don't know. Yeah.
Look at me go develop. I know I'm really proud of you. You use your planner more than I do. Yeah, development. Look at the characters that have been happening. So LEG says my fiance and I met in 2021 while I was an athletic training student and he was in the Navy. While the both of us having busy schedules, it was important for me to find a balance between school, clinicals, work, dating, and other things.
One thing that has helped us since beginning is having a shared calendar to put down work schedules, especially since mine can change occasionally from time to time. We would also use this calendar to plan time for date nights during our busy weeks. Dude, like planning date nights? Yeah. Regular date nights. Yes, yeah, I think my parents do like once a week, every Wednesday or something like every Tuesday they like changed. It recently, yeah, to a different day.
Something that we do, we ask for gift cards for Christmas and we put those like in a pile. So then like when we're like, oh, let's go out to dinner, It's not like, oh, we can't spend extra money 'cause it's already allotted for, right? So like if you plan in advance, you're like, oh, we're going on date night on this Thursday, Grab the gift card it's already allotted for it's already planned. Like you literally just have to execute it like plug and play,
plug and play easy. That's the thing also, so I can't imagine like trying to date while in AI mean like here's the thing. Randy and I started dating like six months before we started in my program. But like by the time we, I had already started the program, like Randy and I were already living together for a while and like we were already like integrating our lives a lot like, so it wasn't like it didn't really feel like we were
like in a fresh relationship. And he's an athletic trainer. So like I felt like it was a lot like you were really understanding. But like I cannot imagine like me thinking now like I don't know how people have clinicals and especially like, OK, so like for example, I have an immersive student and she's with me 40 hours plus. Yeah, seriously. And then she has to go home and do her homework. And like, I'm doing the same thing. Like, we're in a doctorate
program. So like, I have to work all the time. And then we go home and do our doctorate. But yeah, I just, yeah, I just don't know, like like meeting someone new or like finding extra time to get to get to know someone. Yeah, that's hard. It's a lot. After you've been mentally exhausted from the day. It's a lot. Another way to maintain your relationship is an AT. These are some top answers. Invite them to your games. That's nice. We we go to our each other's games.
We do. It's a lot easier when you're closer. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it is because like we live like within 1015 minutes of my work. So like, it's really easy for Randy to come out to my games. Yeah. And like I try to make it out to his games, but like he's a little bit further. So sometimes it's like if you look at traffic you're like oof, this is going to take me forever, way too long to get out there. Or like when I was far it was like way harder for him to get
out of my game. It's like sometimes on a weeknight it would take like 2 hours to get there and I'm. Like it was mostly weekends that I was able to. Right. Or that we'd carpool. But then then it's like you have the whole day with me at the game instead of you doing your own which make time for yourself is another way to maintain your relationship. Yeah. But how do you juggle all these things? It's like when they say, oh, you should get more sleep. Yeah, in life.
There's not enough hours. Yeah, there's not enough hours. The 24 hours is not enough in a day. No so Mike and M says maintaining. For maintaining a relationship, communication is key. Make sure they know your schedule is usually not in your control so you aren't choosing to miss things. Finding the balance at home. My husband school friends know when I'm in season to reach my husband and not me. Schedule play dates for kids with him.
When I'm in season I try to pick up a bit of a heavier chunk of the offload or to offset my in season. Nice. Jeremy Jackson from sports medicine broadcast. He said don't joke about work, wife or cousin. Like just protect. Your relationship, Yeah, yeah. I think that's a really good like it. It's all, it's almost like microaggressions that you don't like realize.
Yeah, but I feel like that's something that like even we try not to like say like, oh, we're going on a date, like or like a friend date or like something like, yeah, it's all in your work wording. You know you'd be. It just catches up to you. Yeah, for sure do. You want to read this one from Albert T. Yes, Albert says, like any relationship, there needs to be mutual respect, understanding and nurturing of the love you share with your significant other.
It's easy to get caught up at work and shift your attention away from your relationships. Creativity and good coordination have always worked for our relationship. Since I travel a lot, I'll sometimes take my wife if it's feasible. She roots for me as as a fan and we get to enjoy the downtime together. Also, the biggest thing is being firm with boundaries at work. Protect your time and well-being. Yeah. You know, like, you go to weddings and like, oh, give advice to the newlyweds.
Oh, yeah. And I feel like some of those are so cheesy. You're like, oh, don't go to bed angry. And then people, like, do go to bed angry. And you're like, which one do I take? I feel like one that I have recently kind of been like pondering is you have to grow together. Yeah. Like I feel like it's so easy and I see a lot of and I every relationship's different. So there's no just like athletic training, there's no blanket statements, right?
But I feel like the people who I see who struggle a little bit more in their relationships are the people who like don't go and do things with their people. Like I feel like their partners, like they'll go. And like, I'm not saying like don't go do things with your friends. Like I still go do things with my friends, like without Randy, but then also like I'm also doing things with Randy and like
making him my priority. And I feel like that sometimes, especially like with our schedule changing and like with everything on our load and us being exhausted. Like, you come home and you're just roommates or you're just like, moving past each other, but you gotta make time to actually do things together and grow together. And do you want to read this one from Kate G? So she is actually married to an athletic trainer? Kate says. I'm married to one.
Our first hospital contract we worked a lot more together and most people didn't even know we were together until they put two and two together because of our dogs. That's funny. We try to keep to a monthly date night where we drive a little further than we normally would just for food. Phones get muted for a few short hours so that we spend uninterrupted time together. I've actually picked up golf as well in the last two years because Hubs is a big golfer. See, this is what I'm talking
about. Yeah. Like, I know someone who, I mean, she's, she continues. So we'll continue her story in a second. But I know someone who on Instagram, like they're always going rock climbing with their partner. And I saw her in person one time and I was like, oh, like you're you're always going rock climbing. You should come rock climbing with us and your wife. And she was like, oh, I hate rock climbing. And I was like, oh, and she's like, I just honestly do it
because of my wife. And I was like, oh, that's really cool that you're like wanting to spend time with her. Like I thought I really admired that, even though, like, I'm not saying like, you have to do it all the time, but like be interested in the things that your partner's interested in. So anyway, Kate continues. We try to do couples tournaments and scrambles to hold us accountable for US time too.
We both are hospital outreach to secondary school, but we also both work together in professional arena football. That's cool. So we do use our travel slash travel weekends with the with that team as a chance to go on a date night by spending an extra day wherever we travel. That's that's a good. Idea. Yeah, we also moonlight together at AD 2. University man busy. Yes, but busy together.
Yes, no rest for the wicked. Obviously we don't allow our personal life to affect our professional life, but it doesn't mean that sometimes we don't agree and there's never some sort of tension. I will say that our D2 part time gig and our arena football team requested us specifically together every time. The D2 university actually wants to hire us as a pair based on coach request, so we must be doing something right. Great reference in there, by the
way. So I also asked if, if everyone, if anyone has ever dated another AT 'cause I mean, obviously like we're a married AT couple. We have friends who are AT couples who are married. I think all of our AT couple friends are married. I don't think we have any AT dating friends. Yes. Yeah, I think they're all married. So I did ask this on our stories. Only 18% of people said yes. And the last time we did this poll, it was in 2021. So about four years ago, the
stats were similar. Only around 24% of people said yes. And that's with around like 200. I don't remember. I I I think maybe last time it was 200. I don't remember how many. This time we got a couple 100 votes. That's interesting for this one, Yeah. I felt like that would be higher. I probably said that the last time we did this episode too.
Yeah, I, I feel like, I don't know, maybe because people are like, oh, if it goes bad, like the profession's so little, like you don't, maybe you're just going to be around them. Or maybe they just don't want to be around AT things all the time. I guess do you want to do some more love stories? Yes, let's do it. Jessica J says I met my husband in our hometown when he came back from college and I just finished high school. Sounds bad, but we were friends beforehand.
Small town, everyone knows everyone. Sounds like athletic training, Yes. He went off to work on his master's degree slash coach football while I went to college to become an AT. Thankfully he was coaching in a high school close to my college and doing his master's degree online so we're able to live together. He then got a job as a head football coach and teacher, and once I graduated I moved out there with him where I became the first ATR hospital has ever had. Oh nice.
We've been here since and I love it. I think it helps that we're at the same school and we're both pretty independent. I work at the hospital during the day, pick up our kids, and then head to the high school, so we end up still spending a lot of time together even though we're working. It's a huge bonus that our whole family gets to be there and everyone treats our kids like. Family. That's nice, that's fun.
Honestly, that's the thing about like like athletics departments and I feel like this is pretty generic. Like I don't like, I think that it is kind of unique to my situation and your situation. But also like I think it's
pretty generic. Like my department, like a lot of the coaches have kids and they, like, I know I've met a lot of their, their kids because they bring them because I feel like, like the athletics departments are a lot easier than like a corporate office or something, right? Well, yeah, 'cause the athletic department's chaos all the time,
so you just add. A well, I mean, they're like sports practices or like it's outside in the athletic training room or like, you know, going to a basketball game at night or like something that the community comes to anyway, you know what I mean? So I feel like spending that time and even though like it's at work, I think you have to figure out your balance of like how much you want to integrate
that, right? Yeah. But I feel like for the most part, like there's only like a couple coaches I can think of off the top of my head ever that that I know they have a significant other that I haven't met. Yeah, yeah, You know what I mean? Yeah. Whereas I feel like for the most part people just come around like it's just part of sports and athletics. Yeah, for sure. For people who work in athletics, how many people do you think have dated a coach Good. Question.
Do you think it's high? Do you think it's higher or lower than dating another athletic trainer? Maybe I should ask that. Man, I don't almost want to say lower. I felt like that too, but apparently 27% of people said yes they've dated a coach. That's crazy. 73% said no. I'm surprised it's higher. Right. These numbers continue to be surprising. Right. And I'm like, like, where, where are these people meeting their
partners, Right? 57 of the percent of the people who we polled met in person, which was actually a higher number than I thought. I feel like fewer and fewer people are meeting in person. 39% said met online and then 4% said it's complicated. So I feel like. I put the it's complicated, honestly, because like people ask us how we met and like, I feel like what started it was kind of online, yeah, like Instagram, but then like. But we met because of. Because of people.
People right? And we have been at the same places. Because like, if you wouldn't have known people like, would you have slid in my day? Exactly. Probably not. See, that's the thing I. Don't. I don't know if it would. Have. See, that's what I'm saying. So like, can you really? Yeah, it's complicated. We're part of the 4%.
But yeah, we were also at the same events and didn't even probably know it. That's the thing, like timing is crazy because exactly like we both went there, there are several events that we've both been to. Yes. And like, I've met his friends and he's met my friends, but we never met each other. And like, they're like we competed against each other in quiz bowl. Wild. Yeah. And like we took a group picture
that we're in the same picture. That the person that took all the pictures for our cohort I don't think has this picture which. Yeah, We can't track down any of these pictures. And we're like, no, we know we've seen these pictures before. Or like, at least quiz bowl. Like we should definitely have a quiz bowl picture together. Or like Fuada San Diego, we should have a picture there. Yeah, they're out in the depths of somewhere. Somewhere someone's got them,
yeah. If someone is listening and has these pictures pre 2017. Yes. So where else are these people meeting? This one's anonymous, You know. Actually, surprisingly, we didn't get that many anonymous ones this time. Hey, everyone's just. Just celebrating a lot, this anonymous one says. I met my husband in gross anatomy lecturer. Yeah, hello, anatomy, bringing people together. And that is why we start every Education episode basically with anatomy. So. You can meet.
Your partner. It's the basis of everything. He was a human fizz major so our classes overlapped. He was also the roommate of a friend of mine in the AT program so we continued that way. Having someone who works in healthcare has been super helpful. He works at normal 9:00 to 5:00 from home and I work as a solo AT at a local high school. He is so great about understanding my hours and honestly helping me to be a stronger advocate for myself. We have had a lot of weekend and
holiday games this. Week. Yeah, it's BS. He makes dinner almost every night so when I come home, I come home to a wonderful meal and then we spend the mornings on the couch in between his meetings while still doing his work of course watching The Price is Right lol. Nice. Communication is huge for us. He knows my schedule each week but knows it can change at any moment so I keep him updated
throughout the day. He also will come and work game staff for us. He loves basketball shot clock so. Oh, that's a big job. I know. Seriously, that's first. Of all doing anything on the board for basketball, it's a big. Job it is, it is like that's a lot of pressure that is so on Friday nights we aren't always
separated. That's something that like, I feel like also even blanket statement for, for like yourself, there's not been one way that we have communicated schedules that has worked for us. Like I feel like it's been a work in progress. Like when like we used to put them on a shared calendar and then we still use a shared calendar. But then we started using like like we would just text each other our schedules and then like we would get an update like per day. And then it'd be like, oh,
you're home. OK, cool. Like not not even planning. And then it started, there was a, a whiteboard. We have a whiteboard that's like Monday through or Sunday through Saturday. And we put it up like in our room and it's, it's like really little. It's like the size of my hand, like probably 2 of my hands. And then it's like a, we split it in half and we put Randy's schedule in my schedule. And we haven't used that in, like a year and a half maybe.
But like, we used to use that and we used to update it every week. But like, I think you just have to figure out what works for you at the time. Yeah. You don't have to stick with it for the rest of time. Yeah. Right. And probably eventually when we have kids, like, probably different. Yeah. Who knows what we're going to be doing then? Google Calendar. We do that now. Do you have the login?
I think I'm still logged in. Yeah, I get crushed by logins that log me out 'cause I'm like, oh man. Yeah, you want to read this anonymous one? Yes, Anonymous says. We met. Wait, these these next one, Sorry to interrupt you. These next ones are all about coaches. We met at work, kept it a secret for a while until we got called into the superintendent's office to quote, UN quote, check in on a rumor he had heard about us. Crazy, right?
Yes and after asking why we were in his office if he didn't have anything to say about our job titles and work we were doing, he got really quiet and awkward and told us he stepped out of line to ask us during work hours. And then we made it public and are now married lol. Everyone was happy for us when we made it public. It was definitely well received by the community. OK. So how how well did they handle that? Like that's, I don't think I could have done that. That's amazing.
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's pretty. Good, Like you get pulled in the superintendent's office and then you're you know, when like you're in in an interview and they ask you a question that you're like, you're not supposed to ask me that question and you're like, question, what do I do? What do I do? I no you. Call them out on it. Illegal question. But I feel like that's like, like, good on them. Yeah, for sure. And then it turned out great in the end.
Yeah, look at that, Look at that, Olivia R said. We met through work, but it was actually another coach's kid. I love the story who is also one of our athletes that suggested that we go on a date. He came into the HR once saying I think you should date Coach Cody. I then told him that if the coach wanted to he could contact me himself. I then got a text about two hours later asking if I wanted to go on a date. Nice. He sent the kid. He sent the kid in. Yeah, a little wing man.
Yeah, at first only the coach who was a parent of that athlete and my Co AT knew. After a few months we told the AD and other coaches. A year later athletes found out from the original kid who set us up. We are still happily together and hopefully engaged soon. Seems like someone's putting the pressure on you. You want to read the the the last story I have. Yes, this one's by Allison B. Me and my now husband met during one of my clinical rotations in grad school.
He was on the football coaching staff at the high school I'd be at. The coaching staff and eventually the whole athletic staff will try to get us together. Wow. It's just it's a team effort. They just knew. Everyone just knew. I finally caved and gave him a yes to a date in December 2019. Survived COVID together and got married October 2023. Yay. That's a good one to end on. And I got to say, so I was
actually surprised. Maybe it's just the people who post, but like, so I wanted to do this episode again because we haven't done it for the last few years. But again, I want like when I was starting this, this the story prompts, the first one I did was how tough is dating in the profession of athletic training? And I and the answer was still pretty significantly tough,
right? Whereas every single time, like I feel like we hear these, we hear these narratives that like dating is impossible, having kids is impossible, having a family, wanting a family is impossible. Like all these things, like you can't be an athletic trainer and do these things. Or have get a good pay.
And we only follow back athletic trainers or athletic training students on Instagram. So if you didn't get a follow back, it's literally 'cause you probably didn't have athletic trainer in your bio somewhere or we probably just missed that you followed us. So follow us again. I will follow you back. Keep trying.
So anyway, every single time, and I'm not joking, every single time I open Instagram, it's literally someone just had a baby, someone just got married, someone just got engaged or like some big thing that people say can't happen in athletic training. And I find it so ironic because I feel like we have thousands of athletic trainers who we follow and I see it all the time. And obviously there are athletic trainers who are doing other things.
And I'm not saying you have to do those things, but I'm just saying like all these people are proving that narrative wrong every single time I open, right, Right. There's a whole mom in athletic training Facebook group. Yeah, and there's plenty of stuff for 80 dads. Yeah, I mean, Jeremy Jackson's really big on that. Yeah, so it's possible. It is so on this Valentine's Day, we just want to say celebrate love. We love you guys. We feel the love from you guys
all the time, all the time. And if you would like to share the love, you can always share with a friend. You can leave a rating or review. Feel like I never do this little plug anymore. If you guys are new, actually we do every episode as stories like this one or we do Education where we bring in Randy Reed's a bunch of research articles. We will digest them, talk them in in a more conversational format.
They're eligible for CUS. Thank you to athletic training chat and clinically pressed our partners. Thank you so much to them. Big love to them. Big love to them. Yes, Medbridge, if you're to it is a reporting year. So if you're interested in ACU subscription, you can get $101.00 off Medbridge with code 80 corner. And again, all this stuff is in the show notes, so I'm going to leave it at that. Do you have anything else? Nope. Thank you for helping us showcase athletic training
behind the tape. Bye.