Breathe Calm Air

I'm Jordan Tootoo, I grew up in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Born and raised there, left home when I was fourteen to pursue my dreams. You know my father was a hockey player, I grew up idolizing him and watching him play hockey. Ultimately my dream was to play in the NHL.

Living in the north I think a lot of my personal challenges were, you know, dealing with substance abuse, it's very common in a lot of our communities.

My brother and I Terence were three years apart. Terence was the one that held the family together and there was a lot of pressure on him to show us the way.

It just got to a point where he couldn't handle it anymore. It was just another night out for us having a few drinks.

Unfortunately Terence decided to get in the vehicle, and drive it. He got pulled over, got A DUI and you know, like I said before, Terence felt like there was a lot of onus on him to show the way for our people and there was just too much pressure for him to admit that he messed up by getting a DUI and ultimately he decided to take his own life.

I've played in the NHL for fifteen years and along the way I've overcome a lot of things that no one's ever seen or heard about. But in order to overcome those, you gotta be able to communicate.

I chose to go down a different path and it just didn't happen overnight. I'm seven years into my sobriety I'm grateful for everything that I've been through. It's made me who I am today. it's a daily grind but that's life.

It's hard but what are you going to do today that's going to make you a better person tomorrow?