The struggle of the college application process will always be the worst part of your senior year. The endless amounts of essays while trying to keep your GPA high will keep you up for many more hours than you originally hoped for. But what's even more stressful? Finding a school you love with athletics you love even more. Before you decide to venture on to bigger and brighter things and maybe become that NCAA athletic star you've always dreamt about, there's a few things you should be aware of.
1. There is no such thing as a student-athlete
Yes, this sounds ridiculous. And yes, you are technically a "student-athlete." But, no matter if you're going to a Division I or a Division III school you are always an athlete. They should probably start calling it athlete-student, since that's the order your life will go in.
2. There are days where you'll regret ever beginning your sport back when you were 5
The long match days, the away games with two and a half hour car rides, the countless practice hours, the team bonding and team bickering. There will always be one point in the school year, or ten, where you'll be wishing you were playing an entirely different sport, or going to some kind of speciality school like fashion, film, music or maybe even cooking. Probably cooking.
3. Freshman year is basically training you for your first out of college assistant job
As a freshman, you are the lowest on the totem pole. You clean up, you pick up, you shut up, and you sit in the back of the van. Everyone has to go through it so don't worry, your team doesn't want to pick on you, it's just like a mild, yet annoying initiation process. Although it's really fun for the rest of us.
4. You're not going to like everyone and everyone is not going to like you
That's just life. No matter where you are or who you're with, someone isn't going to like you. You might not like a teammate. You might not even like your coach. But no matter what, try your best to be yourself. And don't worry about what others think.
5. Your team will be your life savior, life support, life stresser and life stress reliever all at the same time
Through all the tough days, the early morning workouts, the fighting, you will grow to love every aspect of being apart of a college team. You'll understand that being a student-athlete is a special opportunity and even though your days will be packed with something new every hour, you'll never want to imagine your four college years without it. There are a large amount of "perks" from being on a team that many people won't understand unless they were on one. And these "perks" are not just the fun dinners, the nice trips and the free clothes. The perks are really the life long friends, the championship games, the inside jokes, the adult world skills, the knowledge of people, the ability to time manage and, of course, the everlasting memories.
