This is for all you student athletes that are trying to find a purpose in what you do. Whether you play a sport to stay in shape, or just because you love to compete, there are many ways you are preparing yourself for college outside of the classroom.

1. You are not being forced to be there.

In most cases, you are not being forced to play a sport. If running, jumping and sweating isn’t your thing, why are you wasting your time and money to shoot a ball into a hoop? It’s just like college; if reading 50 pages a night, studying until 1am, and living in the same room with another person isn’t your thing, why are you wasting your time and money attending a university? Of course, this may not be a college student's favorite list of things, but we can still tolerate it for 4 years to score our dream career.

2. There are sacrifices you have to make.

If you played a sport in the winter season, the odds are that you had to come into the gym for practice or weight lifting over winter break. While all of your friends are sleeping in or traveling for the 2-week vacation, you and your teammates are sacrificing your time to stay in shape. In college, there are an arrangement of things you have to sacrifice for success. Midterm week may just fall on the same week as Homecoming events, so you sacrifice going to the party to study in the library for your exam the next morning.

3. You care more about your health.

Playing sports is very demanding on an athlete’s body. It’s even more demanding to maintain a state of health that is comfortable to compete in as an athlete. From the start of playing a sport, you come to realize that eating a McDonald’s cheeseburger before a game will tear you down faster than having a hardboiled egg and some apple slices. In college, you are dealt a handful of choices of what to eat in dining halls and around campus, and having a natural sense of what is and isn’t positive for your body will steer you further away from the “freshman 15”.

4. You learn how to balance your time.

In relation to making sacrifices, balancing your time as a student-athlete can be quite stressful – but eventually, it becomes second nature. With practice every day after school, games sometimes 3 nights a week, and hours of busy work to follow it all, you learn to make do with the downtime you do have. Bus rides between schools or your 30-minute lunch breaks soon become your only time to get homework done, and if you don’t get it done – you aren’t going to be playing in the game. This helps you prioritize study time and work time more efficiently in college. You may think you have a lot more time to do things, but you won’t get those things done unless you create a healthy balance.

5. You naturally have more school spirit.

Whether you were a cheerleader or a cross country runner, competing for your high school made you have more spirit. You look forward to dressing up for Friday night football or going to support your friends in the school musical. Just like you love to have a crowd of fans at your competitions, you enjoy being a fan for your other classmates. College towns are built off of school spirit, so being involved, and proud of your school makes it that much more fun to attend a university.

6. You make friends from other schools and cities.

If you grew up playing the same sport - then you have definitely met friends from other schools and cities that play the same sport as you. Take select soccer, for example. If you played on a select team, you had the opportunity to play with athletes from different areas – not just your hometown teammates. Most students don’t know a lot of people going into college, so finding your new group is less frightening when you are used to meeting and competing against strangers.

7. You set goals and actually try to meet them.

No one joins the track team with the mindset of never improving themselves as an athlete. Setting a goal for how fast you want to run a 100m, or how high you want to jump during the high jump, makes you practice until you have reached your goal. Setting goals in college is just as important – without setting goals you will not be able to track your achievements. Making it a goal to improve your math grade by 10% will push you a lot harder to actually reach a better grade.

8. You know how to take constructive criticism.

A skill that not everyone accepts, taking constructive criticism is meant to better you as a person and in whatever you are trying to accomplish. Athletes like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant didn’t become the legends they are today in basketball by, ironically, playing however they wanted. Though good at playing basketball they were given constructive criticism by coaches and trainers every day, and they accepted it – becoming better shooters, ball handlers and defensive players in the end. Learning to take constructive criticism from professors is just the same as taking it from a coach. Their advice is to make you a better student, whether it involves changing your writing style, or how to complete a scientific experiment.

9. You have a coach to confide in.

When life gets hard to handle it’s not easy to go through without a little guidance. Coaches are figures in our lives that have watched us grow and sometimes know us better than ourselves. We learn to turn to them when we need extra help. While in college, many people don’t utilize their resources when things are taking a turn. Counselors, professors, and staff members are just like coaches, they are there when you need them and are pretty darn good at helping you get back on your feet.