If there is one thing every athlete can relate to, it’s the feeling of your career coming to an end. Whether it ended for you in high school, college or after a professional career-- it's all the same feeling. We all loved the same thing, and it comes to an end for every single one of us at some point. All you can do is look back on the memories you never even knew you were going to miss.

You’ll miss your teammates.

Once your athletic career comes to an end, you’ll never be surrounded by people who have the same passion for a sport and the same schedule again. You’ll never have a group of people experiences the happiness of the same wins, and pain of the losses. The insides jokes from long bus rides and memories from Saturday morning practices might not seem meaningful at first, but one day that will be all you have to look back on.

You'll miss your coaches.

A coach is pretty similar to a parent, in the sense that you can get downright irritated with them and still love them. Once your athletic career is over you no longer have that older adult pushing you and challenging you to be the best you can be. You no longer are having someone who was in your exact shoes at some point teaching and mentoring you multiple nights a week. You won't remember a number of sprints they made you run or the times you disagreed, but you will remember how much they pushed and shaped you.

You’ll miss the high.

There are a lot of natural highs in life, but not many of them compare to that feeling of scoring during a game. The sound of the crowd, the thumbs up from your coach, the celebrations from your teammates and the pride you have in yourself is pretty incomparable. You’ll miss seeing your name in the newspaper, receiving awards and family members asking about games. Take in those moments and try to remember how they feel, because one day you’ll want to channel that kind of feeling when you're no longer that player.

You’ll miss the commitment.

Who knew that one day you would miss not being able to hang out with friends on a Friday night because you have practice in the morning, doing homework in the middle of the night because you just finally got home or spending your summers away at camps. At one point all of this seemed like an inconvenience and sacrifice to playing the game, but now you’d probably give just about anything to have it marked on your calendar.

You’ll miss the little things.

There are a lot of big pictures things and people you’ll miss when your days as an athlete are over, but we can’t discount the little things. You’ll miss having your name plastered all over the backs of a million of t-shirts. You’ll miss buying new cleats, equipment and other items you were getting each season. You’ll miss your jersey number actually being yours. You’ll miss seeing the improvement in yourself, and your team. You’ll miss the post-game soreness, sweat, and dirt.

You’ll miss everything you never thought you’d ever appreciate.