Weyburn's Alex Clarke is a farm wife, a mother of two young children, a full time Relationships Manager in the Ag industry, as well as a world-traveling hockey official that has her away from home up to 100 days in winter.
Maintaining a work-life balance while chasing her dreams has included some sacrifices for the ultimate good of her family. Her children, ages six and two, have seen their mom accomplish the kind of dreams most moms never do.
"The kids and the family always come first. But you navigate that a little differently, depending on the commitments," she shared. "The kids have seen me do a lot of things, and they've spent a lot of time away from me. That alone has been really good for them, because they've developed relationships with other people that they probably wouldn't have developed if I was home all the time."
"They've also seen me do really cool things, and they've been a part of some of those really cool things, so I think they've been exposed to different things and different dreams, and seeing mom chase a dream that's not just her job, not just the farm, not just being a mom has been cool for them, too."
With hobbies as diverse as long-distance running and gardening, Clarke has the flexibility to achieve her goals thanks to tweaking how she does her day job.
"Last fall, I actually changed jobs in the same career. I now work for Rabobank as a Relationship Manager, lending money to farmers. But I took that position because it's 100 per cent remote. It allows me the flexibility to work while I'm traveling and just balance things a little bit better to be able to accommodate both hockey and an income."
"A lot of the decisions we've made as a family have been around hockey and my goals with hockey. So a year and a half ago, we made the decision for [my husband] to quit his full-time job, because until then he was also working full-time. We made the decision for him to quit his full time so that he could focus on the farm, and then in the winter that he could support me with with the kids and with hockey. So that was a big decision, too. But now I'm the outside income earner. I'm the one with the benefits. I'm the one with the full-time job that has a little more structure around it, and he has a little more flexibility, but then can support [me]."
"You just make a lot of decisions as a family for what your family goals are, and what your personal goals are, and you take it all and throw it in a pot and hope you end up with a good recipe at the end of it."
"It's a lot of chaos, and I think people see the success of it and always wonder, 'Oh, my gosh, how does she do it?' and not take into consideration that it is true and absolute chaos. You're usually exhausted 90 per cent of the time. But at the end of the day, you kind of set your goals and you set your priorities and you just balance things as best as you can. I've got some systems in place that really help with that, and a couple of different mottos that help me get through. But at the end of the day, you just kind of do your best, and sometimes less is more and sometimes more is less."
She added, "I love gardening. I have a huge garden on the farm, and you post a beautiful picture of the vegetables out of your garden, and everybody thinks it's phenomenal. But you don't see that the garden is absolute chaos. There's weeds everywhere. You've just thrown the trash out there to decompose. The kids are crying and dirty and you're just happy because you have some nice vegetables and that's what everybody else sees."
Clarke expressed her gratitude for the support of her family in regard to her hockey dreams, which will take her to Italy this February to once again referee with the IHF at her second Olympic Winter Games.