Meant For You

two.

Miles Dempsey

Playing in the NHL was always the goal.

I had a hockey stick in my hand the day I learned how to walk. While both of my parents sort of forced hockey into my life, I didn't hate it. I was grateful they did because it became my greatest love. My greatest strength. It was the thing I was best at. School and hockey were my main focus growing up.

Pops said good grades would help me get into a school that had a great hockey team. I never imagined leaving Canada after high school but the States had good schools. Those good schools offered me athletic scholarships. Graduating with a 4.0 GPA also helped my case. I was the valedictorian at Madden High school. But nobody cared about that when I got to the league.

They only cared that I was a good player. I was a great hockey player. The best in my draft class, I'd say. I won Rookie of the Year and have won many more trophies since then. Just because my life is great now, doesn't mean I don't miss what it used to be.

Going out without anyone staring at you and asking you to take pictures or sign autographs. Posting whatever stupid shit I wanted to on social media without getting judged. Sleeping with a girl and not being scared that she would get pregnant shortly after and blame it on me even though it wasn't mine - it's happened before.

Life was much more fun when I could do all of those things. But Miles Dempsey has to keep a clean, good image. I have a total of ten posts on my social media. I spend as much time on Instagram and Twitter as I spend taking a shot. I'd take a night in rather than a night out. And I'd never pick anything over hockey. Anything.

That was my life now.

I used to be so different. Everyone who's known me for a long time gives me shit for it. I used to care more about how much I'm changing, but now? I could care less. I'm focused on something that keeps me living. Without hockey, I wouldn't have the life I have. I wouldn't be the person that I am. I wouldn't have all these amazing things and meet the great people I have.

I might wake up every now and then and wish that hockey didn't completely consume me but it only lasts a couple of seconds. I get over it and move on because a lot of people would kill to have the life I have.

After all, you can't complain about your life when doing what you love has made you a millionaire at 24 years old, right?

Still, more than a couple of times a day, I think about what it would be like if I didn't have any of this. The fame, money, and ability to play hockey at the highest level. If I was just a normal guy still living in Vancouver instead of Los Angeles, one of the most lively cities in the States. That thought happens to leave my head quickly when I realize it means I wouldn't have hockey.

I need hockey to live. I don't know myself without it.

So as much as the thought of being a regular guy sometimes makes me fucking hate my life - because I'm not a regular guy - I don't like thinking about it for too long. I'll never love anything as much as I love hockey and I know that for a fact.

These past couple of years haven't been our best, but some burning sensation in the pit of my stomach tells me if I lead my team well enough this season, we'll get there. We'll be successful. We already have the talent it takes. The rest is up to how well we use it and how much will we have in order to get to our end goal.

Bringing home the Stanley Cup.
Every hockey player's ultimate dream.

I'm hungry. The team's hungry. We've been starved and deprived of this for years. There is no chance in hell we don't take home the gold this year. I'll be damned if we don't. Losing isn't in my bones. It never has been.