Being a student athlete is an amazing thing: you get to play the sport you love, hang out with awesome teammates all the time and represent your city, state, high school or university in an honorable way. But as great as being an athlete is, it definitely comes with some struggles athletes are all too familiar with. Here are 10 struggles all student athletes have faced or are facing in their athletic careers.
1. When non-athlete friends ask when you’ll be able to hang out.
Having non-athlete friends is great, but sometimes, they're not going to understand your crazy busy schedule and your commitment to your sport. They'll probably get frustrated when they ask you to hang out, because your answer most of the time will be "I have no idea when I'll have time" or "Sorry, I can't, for like the next five months."
2. When you think you're in the clear for conditioning for the day, and coach surprises you and tells you to "get on the line."
The end of practice is always an anxiety-inducer for athletes who do a lot of conditioning. There's nothing worse than thinking you've made it through practice unscathed, only to find out there's a huge session of conditioning and suffering coming your way.
3. Having to be a good sport when you lose to a cheap, obnoxious team or athlete.
Nobody likes playing a team that's obnoxious, cheap and cocky—it makes your blood boil and can fire you up pretty quick. Even worse yet is losing to this team, and then having to show them you're a classy, humble team can be excruciatingly painful. You may appear gracious and calm on the outside, but on the inside, you're anything but that.
4. Coming home super hungry from a long practice to find out mom hasn’t started making dinner yet.
After a long day of school and a grueling, intense practice, there's only one thing that you seem to get excited about: dinner. You're hungry from a hard workout and want nothing more than to relax and get something to eat—and then you learn your food won't be ready for an hour and a half. It's definitely a spirit crusher.
5. Trying to mask your pain and soreness the day after a hard workout.
It's no use pretending like you're not sore and in pain—everyone's going to notice when you walk up the stairs or try to pick up your backpack. Once you get through an entire day of grimacing and grunting because your muscles are incredibly sore, don't worry: you only have one more day of walking like a grandpa until you feel normal again.
6. Waking up at ungodly hours to go to morning practice.
There's a few seconds every morning where you wake up and don't exactly remember what you have planned for the day, and then, it hits you: you have to leave for practice in 10 minutes. It's cold, you're tired and your brain isn't functioning yet—sounds like a perfect time to try to master a high speed, difficult sport.
7. The only style you know how to rock is the “athletic look,” and people sometimes question your fashion sense.
Let's face it: as much as you'd like to believe it, you just can't pull off the non-athlete look. You almost always are dressed like you're going to go run a marathon, and when you don't, you just look kinda awkward. To you, dressing up is wearing something Lulu lemon, a new hat or headband, or a new pair of tennis shoes.
8. Trying to figure out how on earth you’re going to get your all homework done.
Being an athlete is a big time commitment, and although you love it, it makes getting homework and anything else done very difficult. A night of lots of homework usually awaits you after a day of school and training, and sometimes, you wonder how on earth you're going to keep your sanity.
9. When you think coach is in a good mood, and then all the sudden, they get super angry.
There's nothing worse than thinking coach is in a fun, happy mood: and then suddenly, they snap. Before you know it, they're lecturing and threatening to keep you at practice until tomorrow morning. A coach's attitude can change on a dime, and it's best to steer clear when you sense it happening.
10. When you have to listen to people tell you why their sport is better than yours or that your sport is easy.
Yeah, yeah. Mhmm. OK. The best thing to do is just smile and wave and keep on doing your thing, you awesome athlete you.
