I love to travel. The first time I was on a plane was in 8th grade when our class went to Washington D.C. Ever since that moment I knew that I wanted to travel, but I never expected to travel in college.
When I came to college I also became a part of the Lady Vol Rowing team. This team has taken me around the country. Being a student athlete requires you to compete, and to compete against good teams you have to travel to away competitions. During the Spring season our team travels up to 5 times a season. This requires a good commitment to getting your school work done and working with your professors to get all your work and notes in order for the classes you are missing.
Not all your professors are understanding of your schedule, so at the beginning of the semester you need to look at your syllabus and talk to your teachers before hand and try to work something out regarding any tests that you could take early.
Time management is the key to getting your work done while traveling multiple times a semester and missing some key classes.
· You need to get your work from your professors ahead of time.
· You need to focus on your work while you are in the plane or when you have some off time between practices and competitions.
· You need to turn your work in early, if possible, because when you compete it is better for you if you have nothing to focus on other than what you are doing at the time.
Athletes never compete as well when they are focused on turning in a paper that was due at midnight but they didn’t factor in the time change.
To manage your schoolwork and travel takes commitment. Getting your work done early, talking to your professors about your situation, and maintaining a work schedule while you are in the air and have down time on the road is definitely difficult. We want to procrastinate just as much as the next college student. But the experience teaches time management skills that will be useful for the rest of our lives.