Any time you see an athletic training student, we're usually studying the day away in between classes, or complaining about said classes. That being said, there's just something about whining about what palpations are so difficult to find and how the teacher moves way too fast before you even understand what's happening that makes you want to keep pushing on. Not only do we complain about the course load, we also complain about how non AT majors talk about AT majors.

1. We are NOT personal trainers

We are not here to teach you how to work out, how to lose weight, or be your motivation in the weight room. We are allied health care professionals (in training) who are constantly learning how to make life saving decisions in 5 seconds. If anything gets us heated, it's asking, "Oh hey how can I lose 10 pounds hahaha!" Although some people think it's joke, it's sort of demeaning to our program as a whole. Athletic training is a medical career. We learn how to tape ankles but why? To prevent you, a very important quarterback for your university for example, from spraining your ankle.

2. We are NOT water girls/boys

Actually, this gets us more upset than anything. We may hand out water, but it's only because we don't want the athletes to dehydrate. Our job is mostly to prevent injury. This involves giving you water and sports drinks so they can keep playing. The best way to not get any water is to call the AT students water girls and boys.

3. It's a lot harder than you think

Like I said earlier, this is a medical profession. Think of us as paramedics but without the ambulance. We are first responders, so we need to know how to make up a game plan in 5 seconds to save lives. If you see any ATs out and about, they're laughing and smiling so you might think their lives are so easy. Well let me be the bearer of bad news and say that those kids are slowly suffocating in their school work. Our major requires mostly human and exercise science classes which requires lots and lots of memorization. I can tell you that sophomore year at my university is considered one of the hardest years for our program. Currently I have all science classes and I'm not sleeping very well most nights. Do I quit? HECK no.

4. We talk about weird injuries sometimes

We discuss the pictures we see in our textbooks and the videos of athletes with rupturing achilles we see on twitter. It's in our nature and it makes us question their cause of injury and their rehab to follow. It makes us smarter, basically! We love looking at swollen ankles, dislocated shoulders, lacerations, and weird postures. We like that stuff and we know it's weird, and no, we don't care.

5. All in all, we love it

We may complain and I may make it seem like it's hell, but I promise it's not. This is probably the best decision I've made in my life so far. This major may cause me to cry and think about quitting, but I think I speak for all of my classmates when I say that we have worked way too hard to give it up. There's something about the bonds you create with the people in your class and most importantly the athletes. It's amazing to know that an athletes wants to come to you to have their wrist and ankles taped. It's good to have that trust feeling. Basically we love it and we wouldn't trade it for anything (not even a good night sleep).