When you’re on a team, especially away from home, your teammates become family. Without them, college would be unbearable and lonely. Thanks to athletics (and of course any other kind of extracurricular activity), we survive.

1.You gain an automatic friend group from the first day of school

You don’t have to worry about the awkwardness that comes with making all new friends freshman year. Once your first pre-season workout began, you instantly had 10+ new best friends. Along with dorm friends and those in the same major as yourself, these besties stay with you all four years and eventually become your family.

2.You spend an exceptional amount of time together and never get tired of each other

Meals, study sessions, and three to four hour practices are spent with your team. You are with your teammates more than your own family back home. Everyday there are new jokes to be told and new drills to tackle together. Having a family makes the daily routines a little more exciting.

3. You can tell them absolutely anything without judgment

Your teammates are your best friends and are always there for you. Chances are, they’ve been through a similar situation and know just what to say. Everyone on the team practically knows the entire team’s life stories and darkest secrets. From relationships to failed tests, teammates are the first people you run to for help.

4.When you’re dying, at least you’re dying together

Pre-season and practices can be tough, but your teammates make it so much better. Although sometimes you feel like you’re dying, you’re all dying together. Support and cheers from teammates give you that extra boost of confidence to remind yourself how much you love the game.

5. You travel cross-country with them

Bus and plane trips are basically mini-vacations with your best friends. Funny road trip games are a must to make the long drives seem a little bit shorter. You quickly learn everyone’s sleeping habits and who the morning people are. Opportunities to travel to cool places are always better when you’re with your friends!

6. You’re all student-athletes for the same reasons

Hard work and dedication is prevalent throughout the entire team. Taking the sport seriously is a requirement from everyone on the team and is evident in work ethic. Eat, practice, sleep and repeat is everyone’s daily schedules, but each and every one of you wouldn’t give it up for anything.

7 .You beat up on each other but at the end of the day it’s nothing but love

Heated practices can be brutal and physical. You’re there to get the job done and sometimes you can be pretty rough on your teammates. Although it might be frustrating at the time, once the practice is over nothing is different than from before it started. The mutual understanding of the game allows you and your team to get past it.

8. They’re one of the few people you can sing at the top of your lungs with

Team jams are always a must and so is singing them together. Pre-game playlists are always a huge and important decision between everyone because you never play good unless you’re pumped up in the locker room. Not only do you play these songs so many times that you grow tired of them, you’ll think of that specific season every time you hear it again.

9. Memories and teammates that last a lifetime

Although college sports are generally the end of your athletic career, the relationships and memories never escape you. Your teammates will be your forever best friends and will be the people you still call in 20 years with something ridiculous. Memories from college sports will stay with you forever and so will your family.