After 9 years of organized town soccer games and 4 years of varsity sports, I had no idea what I was going to do once I got to college. Free time? Making friends on my own? No teammates??
I kept telling myself I had earned a life without practices six days a week, weekend commitments, and lifestyles dictated by coaches. After the first week of freshman year, I caved back into my old ways. I joined a team for an entire semester until I realized it was making me more miserable than it was doing me good. I knew it was time to leave sports in the past and move on but it was a much stranger transition than I thought it would be.
Free Time?
Being on a team in college meant that when I wasn’t at practice, I was in class. When I wasn’t in class I was napping which left approximately zero time for socializing. Now, I go to class, do my homework, and now what?
Food affects my body?
The WORST part about not being required to work out twice a day is the harsh realization that gaining weight is unavoidable. Especially if you don’t have a healthy diet. All through high school and first semester, I lived with the mindset of, “Whatever, I’ll burn it off later.” Now without rowing, I cannot have that mindset anymore. Luckily physical activity isn’t hard to do, but running a mile is a lot more painful than I remembered.
Making friends?
My whole life my friends have been my teammates. Whether it was my best friend of 12 years that I met in the PeeWee soccer league or my close-knit group of high school friends, I almost never had to go out of my way to meet people. They were always kind of just there. Meeting new people was something that never even crossed my mind!
Sports are so important to have in our lives. Unfortunately, there comes a time for everyone where it just doesn’t fit into our lives like it uses to. That’s ok! When one door closes another opens.