Karly-Lynn Heffernan

My name is Karly-Lynn Heffernan, and I’m a senior at Harvard University. I played for the Women’s Varsity Ice Hockey team in my Freshman year and Sophomore year. I also played for Team Canada for five years until I broke my right foot at a National camp in Spring of 2016. In Fall of 2016, I was faced with the decision to take a year off from attending Harvard to get surgery and to save my eligibility. After getting a bone graft in my talonavicular bone in my arch, they realized there was more needed to strengthen my foot. One year later in Fall of 2017, I got a second surgery to place a screw in my navicular bone. Unfortunately, the ending result of this foot injury has caused me to move on from Hockey and my collegiate sports career. Despite the disappointment of this, I remained positive and motivated for the next chapter because I knew it was all I could do. Since retiring from the sport that I played from the age of 3, I have stepped out of comfort zones and I have been able to refocus my priorities onto building closer relationships with family and friends that are outside of the sports world. These scars on my foot continue to remind me of all the hours put into training and getting to where I am today, and I couldn’t be more proud and grateful for how this situation has shaped me and given me the opportunities to pursue new goals and hobbies. Stay Strong -- it all happens for a higher purpose! :)