World traveler Taylor Wenzel and living life on impulse

Very few people, let alone athletes in the OUA, have moved around the world from place to place more often than TMU’s third-year setter Taylor Wenzel. 

Born in France, living in Toronto, and staying grounded over the summer and winter breaks in his hometown of Calgary, Alberta serve as just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Wenzel’s whereabouts throughout the year. 

Having already visited five of the seven continents on earth, all before the age of 25, the tip of the iceberg that has come to define Wenzel on the day-to-day still remains one of the more intriguing destinations left on his list, with Antarctica and parts of the Arctic Circle being a venture he hopes to soon live out while working his way closer to the bottom of his personal bucket list. 

“I think it’s huge to experience the world,” said Wenzel. “I love going to see new people, new cultures, and experiencing a life that we are not used to here in Canada.”

Immersing himself into new cultures and lifestyles has become a yearly tradition for Wenzel during his time away from the court. Having enough experiences to fill the pages of several chapters, Wenzel believes the start of his traveling endeavours can be found written in the prologue of his life novel. 

Before even being born, Wenzel’s parents made the decision to carry the life they had made in Calgary to one of the crown jewels of western Europe. 

A life-changing call in the early hours of the morning between Wenzel’s father and the coach of a professional volleyball club in France ignited the family’s fiery pursuit to a foreign country.

By the next morning, one-way plane tickets filled the hands of Wenzel’s parents as France sporadically barreled from twilight talk to reality in the blink of an eye. 

Although not remembering much of his time in France, having only lived in the country for a little over a year before moving to Calgary, Wenzel has gone back to his roots numerous times since then and has left wondering what his life could have been like after every visit. 

“I can totally see myself having lived there, and even seeing myself living there in the future,” mentioned Wenzel, who credits baguettes – a staple within the French cuisine – as a key memory from visits to his homeland. 
 

Since then, Wenzel has visited parts of Australia, Asia, and even spent time in Africa, though that trip proved to be more life-changing than life-lounging for the voyageur. 

Staying at various schools and churches, Wenzel and his family spent their brief time in Africa supplying resources such as food and water to children in local communities. 

Among the supplies were balls and nets, volleyball equipment in particular that Wenzel and his family couldn’t resist playing with. From setting up matches to showing kids within the area how to play the sport he loves, Wenzel found himself engrossed in a traveling experience unlike any other.

“Going there and just being able to show my love for volleyball and helping [the kids] as best as I could with something was more rewarding than any words I could fabricate.

“It’s more than life itself,” he added. 

In addition to teaching kids the ropes, Wenzel delivered the group toys to help improve the entertainment in their lives as a result of the poverty scattered around the continent. 

With a handful of toys nestled in his arms, Wenzel locked eyes with the array of kids cheering around him and experienced a memory that continues to perch a smile on his face whenever it passes through his mind. 

“The smiles on their faces – of someone looking out for them and someone caring for them – was the most rewarding part [of the trip],” mentioned Wenzel, who has gone on to visit a handful of other countries and continents since, and has yet to come away from them with similar life-changing experiences. 
 

Yet as he continues to chase that feeling, that rush and that unparalleled moment abroad, Wenzel believes his free and open mind has allowed him to punch his plane tickets around the globe and endure very little regrets while doing so. 

Roaming the world with an unlocked and unfastened mind has allowed the third-year to travel wherever the wind takes him and be more than content with where he ends up. Among all else, Wenzel’s fresh view on the world has put the journey he experiences while traveling well before the destination, focusing on the former and valuing everything it has to offer. 

Finding excitement and solidarity in the improvisation of a sinuous journey, Wenzel fuels his adventurous side by drifting away from the plan at every turn. Accidental or not, Wenzel finds the best things in life, let alone while traveling, branch out from unplanned and imperfect experiences. 

They also account for the Calgary native’s fondest of memories – ones he has, and will continue to reminisce about as he grows older.

“Nothing is going to be perfect and I never expect things to be perfect,” said Wenzel. “Life is too short to follow the plan.”

More often than not, Wenzel is adjusting his own plans while setting up his teammates as a member of the Bold volleyball squad. Faced with the unknown of what the opposition may do at any given moment on the court is an element of the game that Wenzel finds to be more comfortable than anything else.

Roaming the middle of the court poses its own set of challenges for Wenzel on a weekly basis, one of which being the uncertainty surrounding the game of his own teammates. Receiving the ball just inches away from where he planned on setting his outside hitters can happen regularly given the rapid pace of play throughout each set in the OUA.

Flexibility is what finds success on the court for Wenzel, whether that comes as a form of reaction between himself and his teammates or the opposition at hand. 

Where many fear that element of the unknown and flinch at the thought of even dealing with it, Wenzel welcomes the challenge with open arms and continues to purposely entangle himself in it whenever – and wherever – he can. 

On the court, Wenzel was made to be a setter from the moment he woke up for the very first time in France – catapulted into a life of constant change and forced to quickly adapt to the things surrounding him in order to pursue an experience that warrants success. 

In-the-moment decisions is what got Wenzel to where he is today – a third-year setter and a valuable component of the Bold’s winning plans this season – and is what paved the path for his father before him having played volleyball professionally in France and starting a family.

From going to France, returning to Canada, and traveling the world like pins flung onto a map, Taylor Wenzel lives his life on impulse and is not afraid to find out what happens next or where it transpires.

Even in Antarctica, though the hand he dangles at the bottom of his bucket list may prefer to sporadically scratch South America off it first.