Throughout my whole childhood, I was on every kind of team possible, soccer, lacrosse, water polo, and many others I will not mention, and I failed miserably at all of them. Somewhere along the way my mom threw me into swimming and finally I was not the worst one, so I decided to stick with it. I made it all the way until college when I realized that D3 athletics were too time consuming for my "lifestyle." Even though I am a retired athlete at the ripe age of 19, I can honestly say that being an athlete made me a better person, and definitely made me better looking. So, thank you organized sports.
From an early age, I had to learn how to manage my time and workload with rigorous practice schedule. There is only so much time in the day, and although I may have done most of my homework in front of my locker in the 5 minutes before class, or on the ride to school in the morning, I learned how to make the most out of every second of the day and put it to use.
Coaches were the people who could either make your day or ruin your day. Every day I would walk to practice hoping that my coach wasn't going to make practice too hard, which it usually was. I had every kind of coach possible, I had my mom and my dad on my rec teams in elementary school, I had the nice coach, the mean coach, the coach who didn't care, and the one who cared a little too much. Each of my coaches taught me what it was like to deal with different kinds of authority and how to be polite to adults even when I was not doing something that was not necessarily enjoyable.
^I wish my coaches loved me this much
There was always that one person that you (and everyone else) didn't like, but they were part of your team and you had to learn to love them and get along, if not only for the success of your team, but for your sanity and happiness. Learning how to deal with various types of people was one of the biggest lessons I learned, and how being open to working with people who are different than you makes life a lot easier.
Hands down, the one thing I miss the most is being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. It doesn't hurt that having practice at least once a day, every day makes you look the same no matter how much you eat. I miss not having to watch what I eat and having to drag my lazy ass to the gym at least a few times a week to keep off my beer belly.
The friends that you make on your teams are the ones who have been with you through the highs and heartbreak of competition. They have seen you through your awkward stages, fat stages, and had to deal with you in the early mornings and late nights. And for some reason they still choose to be friends with you. Treasure those people. They understand what you have been through and share memories and inside jokes that no one else understands.
Sometimes I'll see sports teams practicing, and start to question if I made the right decision, but then I remember a time when I had a set schedule every day, had someone telling me when I could or could not go out to parties, had to put my hair in a swim cap, and stress about making enough time to do my homework.
Shoutout to those of you who are still out there kicking ass and taking names on the field, track, or the pool. I admire you.
