HAMILTON, Ont. - Meghan Mazer always had that drive inside her. It was there before the former McMaster Marauders women's tennis player stepped onto McMaster's campus, before her software and biomedical engineering degree and current job, and before becoming an assistant coach for the women's tennis team.

Over all those years and experiences, Mazer has grown so much. She learned to face failure and go outside her comfort zone. She learned how to become a better leader and rediscovered her passion for tennis. Before all that, she had that drive to get better.

Let's go back to when she was growing up. Her family put her all sorts of extra-curriculars, and through those experiences, she picked up the initiative to want to better herself.

Her dad took her to a local tennis court in their hometown of Rockwood, where she picked up the sport. He was always pushing her to be stronger and more competitive. He kept pushing her through adversity. He taught her the value of persistence throughout countless drills.

Mazer carried that persistence with her. She knew it could be frustrating at times, but she also knew practice, repetition, and consistency were her way forward. Mazer felt that spark of leadership and drive inside her.

When she was 10, she started a penny drive for the World Wildlife Fund. She found her passion by attending engineering summer camps at the University of Guelph. Mazer loved being able to create new things and solve problems. From that moment onwards, she knew what she wanted to pursue.

She had a vision and felt the drive to pursue it. She started the STEM program in her high school.

Where does that drive come from? Mazer intrinsically knew the path she was on. An "unspoken internal force that like carries your feet forward," she called it.

Her feet carried her to McMaster. Mazer applied and was accepted into the school's Software and Biomedical Engineering program. In the meantime, she kept playing tennis. She didn't have professional aspirations, but she knew she wanted it to be a part of her life. Mazer tried out for and made the tennis team.

When she joined in 2017, she still had much to learn. Mazer had a massive fear of failure and took little risk. She called herself a huge perfectionist back then. Even trying out for the team was a risk for her. She envisioned what she wanted for her experience and the program.
Part of that came from what she already knew. Her competitive spirit for instance. Her desire to keep getting better.

Part of that she didn't know. Mazer wanted a sense of community – where people showed up for one another – she hadn't had that in her life. Where people were all competing for a cause. Mazer wanted to form strong relationships with her teammates.

She became a team captain right away. In her first year, she was figuring out what needed to be added to her experience. In her second year, she figured out what to do about it. In the later years, she put that into action. Mazer was driven to improve the program.

That doesn't mean that it was easy. She stared failure in her academic and athletic life straight in the face. Through various experiences, Mazer learned that success and failure weren't just about the outcome but rather the process and experience. She did so while carrying that fear of failing inside her.

Mazer had to dig deep and find that drive and belief inside her as she faced challenges in tennis, school, finding internships and even her first job after graduating. Over time, she realized that success takes many forms. She started to accept that failure is always a possibility.

Mazer had to practice failing repeatedly – and be okay with it. For example, when she sat in a car waiting for her anatomy exam results to come out, she was shaking, terrified of possibly not passing the course. Then she reflected.

Even if this is a failure, there is a way forward, she thought. You can retake the course.

Knowing there were those paths forward helped her overcome that fear. Mazer began to become more and more comfortable with it. Her world opened up as she embraced the possibility of failure with open arms. Mazer felt the bravery to pursue things she wouldn't have before. To jump into the deep end and go outside her comfort zone.

Such as when she applied for a co-op position that was outside her comfort zone of Software and Biomed. She was terrified during the interview – "sweating bullets," she recalls – but she went for it anyways. When she found out she got the position, she was pleasantly surprised. She was also proud of herself for the experience.

"Comfortable being uncomfortable," she called it. Mazer learned to trust her instincts. At times when she could feel the fear creeping in, she knew to dig in and put everything out there. She could feel her feet moving underneath her. "A leap of faith," she said. 

Meanwhile, Mazer was facing adversity like she hadn't before on the tennis court. She found a sense of community in her first year. She still had her vision.

However, in her third year, she also felt frustrated by her own expectations. She had just lost a match to an athlete from the University of Toronto and felt she should have won.

Mazer felt her performance was declining. She was still learning to deal with failure. She felt the lack of support from her head coach at the time and the sport itself. She felt her university tennis experience was ruining her relationship with the sport.

After the match, her frustration and feeling of lack of support boiled up inside her. She was close to quitting. She went for a walk afterwards and was less frustrated. Mazer ran into a teammate who was on her own walk and had the same thoughts she had.

From that moment onwards, Mazer and her teammates realized what they could do with their frustration. They had talked before about the changes they wanted, but now there was a sense of anger toward a common goal—a sense of action as well.

On the drive back from the match, she told her teammates: "We can try and do it, but I need your guys' help and your guys' voices to get that job done."

Then, Mazer saw her teammates stepping up for each other. She felt the support and community she was lacking. Her teammates were there to fight for her.

Knowing that, Mazer found the energy and drive to push for solutions. An energy she got from those teammates. An energy that led her to keep writing letters, making petitions, and holding meetings with the athletic department. An extra energy that kept pushing her forward. 

Mazer and her teammates pushed for more support and visibility from the athletic department. They pushed for a more competitive team and supportive environment. That also meant a new head coach. 

Right before her final year, Mazer met Kirsten Magi—also known as 'KK'—for the first time. She knew Magi had played tennis at Purdue University.
"What's your vision of the team," she asked Magi.

"The most important thing to me is that these girls leave the team – whether they graduate or choose to leave – and feel like it was a positive highlight of their university career," Magi told her. Magi talked about positive experiences.

When she heard those words and left that conversation, Mazer felt all the emotions inside her. She had worked so hard over the past five years to bring about positive change for her program.

Hearing that, she felt overwhelmed but also found. She looked at her own priorities. Even if she wasn't playing as much anymore, she didn't see it as a failure anymore. Her perspective changed.

Mazer focused less on her results and more on her gratitude for her experience. She saw her team supporting each other, creating that positive culture she had always wanted. She started playing much more unencumbered. She fell in love with the sport again, having so much fun on the court.

She described it as "like rediscovering an old friend and, at the same time, learning new things about them."

Off the court, she enjoyed all the other parts of her experience. She became more involved with the McMaster community. Mazer started to engage in more meaningful friendships with her teammates than ever before.

She would spend so much time with them, learning about each one and what they needed. She would know who listens to pump-up music and who needs a bagel before a match.

Mazer built relationships with each of them, understanding them and making sure they felt heard. She learned how to best support them and communicate with them.

Let's fast forward to her final OUA championships. She talked with her teammates and coaches about how to tackle the fear of failure they might be feeling.

She and her teammates went into a huddle. "Everything left on the court. Don't worry about anything else," she told them. "Above all, enjoy it. Enjoy the match that you're playing. Have fun."

Mazer knew having that mindset would shed a different light on their challenges and experiences.

When they won the bronze medal, Mazer was in disbelief. She thought of all the little things in her journey – from taking a leap of faith in joining the team to almost quitting to always pushing to improve the program – that culminated in this moment. She felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude.

Her vision for the program had come to fruition. Things had come full circle. Now came the next challenge. The woman who always had a sense of direction was now without one. She didn't have a good plan following graduation.

Just like she learned to deal with failure, Mazer now had to be okay with not having a long-term direction. It was scary, though. How am I going to find my way again, she wondered. Where am I going here? What's next?

Then she thought about her previous experiences. She thought about her patience and work ethic. She thought about the belief she had in herself. That time was a valuable lesson – even though it didn't feel it in the moment.

That direction started to take shape. Magi mentioned how she would love to have her back as an assistant coach, which sparked Mazer's interest. She knew she wanted to continue giving back to the team, and she soon found herself doing just that.

Mazer continued to build relationships with the players—now as a coach. She learned to lead differently. It was heartwarming when a player and former teammate confided in her about something, giving her confidence in her coaching and leadership abilities.

Mazer had honest conversations with Magi. From that, she learned to be honest with herself. She knew she needed to put aside whatever pressure she was feeling and acknowledge that she was always learning. With Magi and the team's support, she did so.

She also found direction in her career, starting with Geotab – a telematics company focused on data collection for vehicles – last October. She started this chapter of her life as a much different person than when she started at McMaster. 

Mazer's focused on building those meaningful relationships in all aspects of her life. She's pushing herself outside of her comfort zone. She's forcing herself to let her colleagues know when she doesn't know something or when she needs to ask questions. She knew that from those times when she didn't know where her future would be after graduation.

How can I better myself, she asks herself? Mazer wants to learn constantly. 

In the meantime, the problem-solving instinct is still inside her. As she asks questions, her work has improved as well. Mazer can uncover inconsistencies and challenge processes. She's able to do her work more thoroughly and produce better results. 

Mazer consciously tries to learn and push herself outside her comfort zone daily. Whether that means taking on a new language – she's currently learning Italian and Latin – or a new book or workout routine or joining a pickup tennis or soccer league. 

When she thinks about her future self, outcomes don't come to mind. Instead, she hopes she's not afraid of failure—even as the stakes get higher. She wants to keep her curiosity and push herself outside her comfort zone. She wants to keep making those meaningful friendships and relationships.

Mazer wants to do so with the same drive she's always had.


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