So, you think it’s hard being a student in college? You wake up in the morning, go to class, shove food down your throat unless you have the luxury of having more than twenty minutes in between classes, do your homework…yada yada yada. Some even have the time to have a social life. But try doing all of that when you are a student athlete and have to plan your classes around practice times and games. Yes, you go through the same routine as everyone else, but you are expected to handle everything else as if you were a normal student.
As a student athlete, you have to block off about three to five hours a day while you are in season, and for some, that continues for the entire semester. You can only imagine what it’s like to get yelled at by your coaches, get your body beat into the ground, work twice as hard to stay on top of your work in all your classes, and still be expected to wake up with a smile on your face and almost want to do it all over again. But, after some time, you learn to want to do that every day.
If it wasn’t for the pressure of coaches being on top of you in school, maybe your grades would be a little lower. And if you didn’t have to miss a few classes to travel for games and tournaments during the season, then there’s a chance you would have never ended up in your professors’ office pleading to teach you the work you had missed. There is a reason why student athletes continue to put themselves through everything that they do.
There is a common ground on why us athletes continue to play our sport in college, in addition to furthering our education and preparing for the future. It can be agreed that one of the main reasons why is because we love the sport we play. Waking up early to go to practice and going to sleep late to finish that one assignment all goes away when you are practicing with your best friends in order to compete in games. You learn to adapt to the struggle, and eventually, you learn to love it. Coaches yelling at you and your body being sore after hours of lift and practice every single day becomes worth it because you and your teammates are bettering themselves and everyone else around them. You learn to push through challenges both physically, mentally, and emotionally that you honestly think you will never get through. That one drill that you promise almost killed you just made you that much better. That extra sprint your whole team ran because your one teammate messed up just made you that much faster. You learn to love the struggle because in the end, it is going to pay off.
Being a student athlete in college makes you crave success both on and off the court. You learn to overcome challenges you once thought were never in your power to overcome. No matter how hard it gets, you learn to love and respect your teammates and coaches. The words dedication and determination are no longer just words, they are your life. You become dedicated to pushing yourself on the court and in the classroom, and you become determined to better yourself each and every day, no matter what is thrown at you. It is no longer a struggle to go through this process, it is an honor.