OCTOBER 2019 IFSMAGAZINE.COM 19To many, she will always be remembered
for what transpired in February 2010. It
is something she now understands was
inevitable and she is content with that legacy.
By the time 2020 Worlds roll around, it
will have been a full decade since the week
that forever changed her life. Rochette
ponders that thought, and while so much
time has passed, there are momentary
encounters that bring it all back.
“I still sometimes meet people in the
street who offer their condolences about
my mother because they’ve never met me
before,” she said. “But it’s been nine years
and when I remind them, they say, ‘Oh,
really, it’s been that long?’
“I can’t really change that. People
remember and I think a lot of people were
also living some of their hardest times
through my story.
“A lot of people have come up to me and
said things like, ‘Oh, when I watched you,
I remembered when I lost my father.’ Or
things like, ‘I was going through a hard time’
or ‘I was going through cancer.’ I feel like a
lot of people identified with my story and
related it to what they were going through.
“I guess I didn’t realize that in Vancouver,
but when I came back the next year, that’s
when I realized the Olympics are a really
powerful media. Sport is great but when
there is a story attached to it ... I felt a lot
of support and I felt lucky to be in Canada.
“There were times after Vancouver that
I thought I would never get over it. Time
really does heal and things do get better, but
you never completely forget. I still miss my
Mom and I think about her every single
day. Every time I have life choices to make,
I think about what she would say. You just
don’t forget that.
“I’ve given a lot of speeches across
the country with the Heart and Stroke
Foundation, talking about it so I don’t get
very emotional anymore.
“I almost feel like someone else went
through it, not me. I don’t know how to
explain that.
“But, sometimes images stick with us. I
look at my life now, being in school, and I
do feel like it’s been a long time.”
Rochette said that the sporting world and
the one she lives in now “are very different”
in many ways.
“Skating is a lot of muscle memory and
sometimes my legs would be burning and
my body would be tired, but my brain would
not be as tired.
“But, with medicine you’re training your
brain ... I feel like the learning is very
different. It’s more exhausting; I don’t know
how to explain it, but sometimes you feel
brain exhaustion.
“Sometimes, you see patients with
different pathologies that you have no idea
about, and that’s quite stressful. You have
to learn very quickly on the spot.
“You might be quizzed by the staff and
you don’t want to look dumb. So you’re
always on your guard. That kind of stresslevel, at the end of the day — you feel it.
Some days are better than others, for sure.
And some days, the amount of stuff you
learn during the day is overwhelming.”
It has been quite the journey for
Rochette who cannot wait to reach the
finish line and move into her new life as a
medical practitioner.
“It feels so great to study medicine and
to learn about the human body,” she said.
“I feel very privileged.” IFS