In high school, I loved being on my team. My teammates became my very best friends from the start of freshman year pre-season. Their friendships were the ones that made me enjoy all of our senior year events, through coordinating who was saving seats for whom in the auditorium, to the trusty group chat, to going out to the diner after award nights. (Cue the reminiscing.) I loved playing my sport six days a week in season and I loved being in shape. I loved wearing my uniform to school on game days, or a dress on the arranged dress-up days.
I loved all the bruises and the sore muscles from weeks of hot practices and games. I loved bus rides with my girls and locker room heart-to-hearts. I loved having that time after a full day of drama-filled classes to reconnect with my team and focus on our task of playing the sport. So many of our Saturdays were spent early on that field breathing hard to condition and to get ready for the next weeks’ games. August was for tan lines from our racerbacks, shin guards and shorts. Being an athlete in high school led me to many of my best memories and my best friends.
Not playing in college was a huge change. I no longer have that set practice time to either look forward to or dread, depending on the rumors of our conditioning that day. I no longer have a daily requirement for exercising that being on a team brought to my routine. I no longer have my teammates to gossip with about anything and everything between class periods.
I miss being on a team and sharing the bond and the love of the sport. I miss having workouts mailed to my home in the beginning of the summer, even though I dreaded them through the years. I miss being a high school athlete; but now I am a college student, and I love it. And I definitely haven’t forgotten what playing on my team taught me.
I now craft my own workouts, and I am going to the gym on campus six days a week. I am losing weight that I never did as an athlete, because I am making individualized plans and modifications. (I also am no longer binging on bags of cheese doodles on bus rides home from games.) I am feeling confident and strong because of the way I am treating my body, and I actually use a lot of the workouts I remember from team workouts.
I am doing great in my school work and I am involved in multiple clubs on campus. I have great friends who aren’t my teammates, but who still coordinate seats at the dining hall instead of the high school auditorium. I also still consider my teammates my good friends and we’ve gotten together on breaks and laughed like old times. I am doing great, and I owe a lot of thanks to being a high school athlete.
It was a big change, not being on a team, but I love how my year has turned out.