Track star Collia Rowe to launch first book

By Colin Bynoe Jr.

THE journey of Collia Cassi Rowe’s life thus far has not been one where the tracks on which she ran were always a smooth course. The 20-year-old freshman student, who’s in her second semester at the North Greenville University in South Carolina, shared her story with the Pepperpot Magazine.

“I was born in New Amsterdam and lived there for four years, but then my family relocated to the Corentyne where I began attending the Gibraltar Courtland Primary School. In primary school, I began to run track and I was very good. I qualified for the National Track and Field Championship through my entire six years of primary education,” the young athlete said.

The eldest of her four siblings, Collia gained a place at the JC Chandisingh Secondary School but things took a turn from there on for the young woman and her family.

“For a while my family was going great, but then things started to change, my mother couldn’t afford to take care of me and my other siblings anymore to the best of her ability but nevertheless, my mother always ensured that she got money to send me to school even if it was one side of the bus fare she had. I used that and I asked my friends until I was able to get enough money to come back home,” she said. “[There was] no guarantee if I would reach any food at home to refuel after a difficult day at school. A lot of days I was in the depths of despair because I was tired of the strain but I looked in the other direction, as to who will take care of my siblings if something happened to my mother.”

With track running deep in her genes, Collia is certainly a “chip off the old block”. Her `Super Mom’ Cabina Paul, in her younger days would compete at the National School Championship in the 200 and 400-metre races with success. Coincidently, Collia fell in love with the 400-metre race as well. Collia would excel with ease while in her secondary school years.

“Even if I didn’t train I still was successful in my individual events,” she mentioned, “I was always encouraged to take track seriously, but I never bothered. My focus was on academics since I saw it as the only way out,” she said. “My mother was my number one supporter. She always encouraged me to never give up; that one day better must come. Sometimes I didn’t have much resources to attend high school. I had [two] uniforms and one pair of shoes which I pasted like eight times and I had a red school bag which was given to me by a Food for the Poor organisation when I was successful at my National Grade Six Assessment. As I progressed the different levels at high school I had to get more and more resources, especially the SBA books. Eight hundred dollars was a lot of money for my mother to acquire in order to buy an SBA book for me. Mom could have used that money to buy food for me and my other siblings. I took the old log book that my teacher had and I tore the pages out and I made a SBA book to complete my assignments.

Wanting to excel, Colia decided to write 16 subjects but did not have enough money to afford to pay for the examinations.

“Even when my mother decided that I could have only written eight, she wasn’t even seeing the money to pay for the eight subjects and the sad part of it was the fees needed to be paid three months ahead. I cried and fasted and prayed and asked God to give me a chance and he opened a door for me. My aunt who lived overseas paid my examination fees for the 16 subjects which I initially wanted to write. I got 12 subjects out of the 16, but I failed Mathematics. My mother decided that she needed to send me to another high school which was Corentyne Comprehensive High to re-sit my math course,” she said. “I wrote four other subjects, but there was a big problem, there were still financial issues in the home, so it was decided that I would ride a bicycle and attend school. My mother saved her money and she bought a bicycle for me and I rode to school a total of six miles almost every day, if the rain wasn’t pouring. Paying for my five subjects was not that stressful because my aunt made another sacrifice and paid. This time I passed with Grades One and Two.”

But when it was time to work, Collia admitted that her 16 subjects did not help her.
“I sent over 40 applications and I couldn’t find a job. [For] five months I was at home not doing anything, until I eventually heard that the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) was recruiting athletes to run for them and they would offer a monthly salary. I made my decision and I applied and I got through on the same day. On the following day I began training,” she said. “The Force they provided hospitality and three-square meals, but I had family living in the area so I stayed at their home. The coach that was present at that time was Mr. Robert Chisholm; he saw the potential I had. He encouraged me to take athletics seriously not just do it for the money, but to embrace the pain that comes with it. In three months I ran the time of 57 seconds in my 400m and he was very impressed. He asked what I wanted to do with my life initially before I joined the force. I told him that I wanted to become a doctor, but I wasn’t seeing any hope in doing so. Mr. Chisholm told me that he will search for possible opportunities, so I can go overseas and study, since I was an all-round athlete and I would be better off.”

She said that Chisholm found out about an organisation called REELA SMC, which is a Non-profit Organisation that helps student athletes around the world to be accepted into colleges in the United States of America. “The representatives of the organisation were impressed because I had reached all the requirements they needed. They composed a letter for me to take to the embassy stating that I would be participating in athletics tryout in the USA. I took the letter and I was granted a visitor’s visa,” she said.

On February 29th 2018, Rowe flew out of Guyana to participate in an athletics trial for her 400-meter event. As things would have it she was granted a scholarship by North Greenville University in South Carolina as an international student to run the 400-metre event. She has so far lowered her previous best 400m time of 57seconds to 55 seconds competing in a time trial at her school’s track. Currently, Rowe is a freshman in her second semester majoring in Health Science.

The 20-year-old track star and aspiring doctor has also found a new drive. Now her pace is set to cadence to the next phase. Quite recently, Collia completed writing her first book called, “The struggles you face today will give you strength for tomorrow”.

She has extended her strides towards self-publishing her own book on Amazon, eBay and iTunes. “The message in this book is that no matter how many times life knocks you down, just get up and go again. Sometimes in life, you have to go through certain things to reach where you want to be. [It also teaches that] pain is temporary; it will only be forever if you want it to be.”