About

Thank you for stopping by The Aspiring Renaissance Man. It means a lot to me that you are interested enough to click on an about page. My name is Connor Meakin and this is my humble abode online. I spend my days weaving tales, building communities, and working for a tech company. This blog represents medium of self-exploration for me.

I am a past member of the Canadian Men’s National Field Hockey team and fresh off University graduation in April, 2012. Through three years of playing field hockey for Canada, I accumulated 45 caps; playing everywhere from Russia to Australia. But, there came a point where I lost my passion for field hockey. The itch was gone, and despite hating every minute of it, I dragged myself to keep playing and training for another year. This was the hardest year of my life.

Amateur athletes dedicate similar amounts of time per week to training and preparation as you would expect from a fulltime job. However, they are not compensated enough to live because of a lack of funding. They also rarely have enough time to work outside their sport. This creates a vacuum where athletes train, compete, and represent their country while putting the rest of their life on hold. No career, no income. By the time many of these athletes retire, they’re behind in the game of life. They may be 30 or older with zero tangible work experience and an undergrad degree. This situation scared the hell out of me.

Outside of sports and social media, I love to cook and eat well. I’ve played just about every sport out there and now experiment with bringing joy to fellow runners through high fives.  I fish and frequent the beach in the summer and snowboard as much possible in the winter.