A little light on the life of a student athlete

    Being a college student athlete isn’t as easy as it seems. We are constantly juggling our time with classes, practice and our social life throughout the day.

    Becoming a student athlete is a choice that requires great discipline and responsibility. At the same time it shows courage, builds confidence, requires dedication and creates leaders in the community.

    A person who is able to maintain the level of stress in a sport and excel in a classroom definitely deserves recognition. Unfortunately, student athletes do not always receive the respect and recognition they deserve.

    There are two different ways athletes are viewed around campus. There are some people that look down upon athletes. They believe that athletes have it made and do not have to work for anything.

     There are also those who see athletes as role models and recognize the hard work that student athletes have put forth towards what they want to accomplish.

    In college everything from schoolwork to athletic training is much more intense than in high school. It took me a while to adjust to the college life myself as I struggled with certain things like time management.

    As freshmen, colleges make sure that they clarify the importance of time management which definitely plays a big role in a student’s transition from high school. In the past I have struggled with managing my time dedicated to certain assignments and exams, which eventually interfered with my sleep.

    I have played football at MC since my sophomore year, and I have learned so much through that experience. In my experience as a freshmen athlete, time management was one of my biggest opponents.

    I was quite unaware of how limited my free time would be as a student athlete. Adjusting to a new class and athletic training schedule was not easy. As a freshman my mind was set on one thing: having fun. It was not long before I was hit with reality.

    I was introduced to a completely new school schedule that only consisted of four hours. I began to dedicate about three hours to football, which consisted of practices and weight training.

    I had become completely drained of energy once I had completed my academic work and athletic training, but still had to manage my additional free time and make time for studying and sleeping.

     After I had adjusted to this constant schedule, it became easier to manage my free time. By then I had created friends and bonds with my teammates and had developed my social life.

    Interacting with the same people every day made things much easier as far as making friends. There were people that I was able to mingle with during sports and in my free time. I learned a lot from the friends I made.

    Not only did sports teach me valuable lessons, but my new friends taught me some things of value as well. For example, I learned to love and care for one another, to be respectful to others regardless of where they are from or who they are and to take responsibility for my own actions.

    Being a college athlete has been the greatest experience of my life. I proudly encourage everyone who has a dream of becoming a student athlete to pursue it, regardless of how hard it may seem. When people put their minds to positive goals, there are only good things that can be accomplished and achieved from their hard work. I myself can vouch for that.