It Takes a Village: Whitney Dikoume

It takes a village

Photos by @finesseszn
Location in @utcachimneycakes

One of my favorite phrases ever is “It takes a village.”  That is because I truly believe that no one truly succeeds on their own- no matter how smart, charming, inspirational or athletic they are.

A village consist of people around you who support you, encourage you, protect you, and fight for you. I believe that we can all achieve the goals we set for ourselves, we just need the right “village" to surround us while we go through the journey. Life is a journey. It is not possible to get from A to B without leaving A and the road isn’t always smooth. There will be times when we'll lose sight of what our initial reason for leaving A was or we'll forget why we wanted to get to B so badly. In moments like that, that’s where the village comes in.

I am a personal trainer and an athletic therapist, the reasons why I chose these professions is because I want to help people.  I want to be a part of the village that helps people climb mountains. I graduated from the University of Calgary in 2014 with a Bachelor in Kinesiology and a major in athletic therapy and I have been working as a certified athletic therapist for the last 2-3 years now. An athletic therapist is a professional medical provider that cover most sports events whether professionally,  semi-professionally or amateur. Other than working in fields, they also work in clinics treating various chronic and acute injuries with a holistic view. They are experts in bone, joint, muscle, tendon, a ligament injury. My job as an athletic therapist helps me help people go back to activities they thought they would never be able to do. On the field, I take care of teams that are giving their heart and soul to be a part of their clubs history – no matter the level or sport. I make sure that everyone is safe and able to perform optimally. This is why I love working with the teams/athletes that I work with.

As a personal trainer, my goal is to keep one from ever having to see me in the clinic. There’s this term coined “prehab" which basically means dealing with issues that can cause injury before the injury happens and rehab is needed. My sole focus is the client(s) that I am working with, and them being able to achieve their ultimate goals but doing so with a solid base – whether it’s their core or their hips or their knees. I want to show people that nothing is impossible when you set your mind on it. I want them to go out and act on the things they want to do.

This is the reason why this spring, I joined an all women ’s tackle football team in Calgary called Calgary Rage. Joining the Rage was something I contemplated for a while, I had my doubts at first. I mean - I've been an athlete the majority of my life but I’ve never played full on contact sports like this. I dreamt of playing and honestly believed I could do it and when I started mentioning it to those around me, I realized that I have a village of my own. A village that encouraged me whether it was my teammates when I felt lost the first couple of practices or my brothers who have played and play the sport explaining how to read the game to me. Because of them, I can now call myself a football player just the way the people I have to honour to work with can now call themselves, marathon runners, recreational soccer players, hikers, runners, and many more.

Photos by @finesseszn
Location in @utcachimneycakes