This fall, I had to learn how to register for classes. By myself. I know most of you are thinking that's normal, but for a collegiate athlete, it's not.

A lot of people think athletes have everything handed to them, but they don't. Athletes work hard for what they have and the privileges they experience, and anyone who thinks differently clearly has never experienced the struggle of juggling school, a social life and a grueling athletic schedule. Your day starts with a 5:30 a.m. workout and you don't get home from tutoring until 9 p.m.. Then you think you still have time for friends and guess what -- you really don't.

Yes, collegiate athletes are given things other students don't have access to, but they earn it. College athletics is a job in itself. But while these athletes learn important life lessons in their sport and in managing a crazy lifestyle, they miss out on a lot of the little things.

I played two years of college softball. And in the 15 years I had played leading up to that, I was convinced I had taken every piece of knowledge the game had to offer and stored it away for safe keeping. But I learned more about myself and about the world just in the first six months of being "normal" than I ever thought possible.

For starters, I learned I won't always get my way.

Believe it or not, this was news to me. As an athlete everything revolves around you. You make the university money so it's ultimately their job to compensate you for your time and efforts and keep you as happy as possible. And it's not just the university, but usually coaches too. Part of a coach's fate rides in the hands of a bunch of 20-somethings. So if you're ballin' out then hopefully (if they have half a brain) your coach is gonna keep you around and keep you happy. Sometimes that's not the case, but it's usually a mutually beneficial relationship that doesn't always happen in the real world. I've come to find that a lot of times you won't get your way.

I hate to refer to the awkward life stage I'm in as the real world, but I guess I'm close enough, right? I've come to find that in my current real world, many things don't revolve around me. Right now I'm a 21-year-old spring-breaker trying to tread water in an ocean full of sharks. The only thing revolving around me is struggle. I have to try a lot harder nowadays to get what I want, which in a way is a good thing. I'm learning to grow up and to make big girl decisions and that it's okay to take a back seat every now and then. But only every now and then.

I learned to take what I want.

If you want it done right, do it yourself. I stopped relying on people to get what I need. Once this semester, I didn't even call my mom to make a doctor's appointment. OK, I called her first and she made me call the doctor myself, but you get the idea.

The sooner I learned to rely on myself and not others, the (surprisingly) easier things became. I can try to explain myself all I want, but I've found that I've never been able to accurately relay my intentions in full to other people. I know what I want, and I learn every day how to get it.

I learned to use my resources.

Yes, being used has a negative connotation, but not when you're a grown up. When you're old it's called networking. How cool is that? Using your network is something I never knew was possible as an athlete. Other people just do that for you. It's like you have a network that you don't even know about, other people just manage it so you don't have to. Well not anymore! Developing and using your own network is stupid cool. Your friend's mom's cousin is dating Barack Obama's niece and you have a great opinion on how to obtain world peace? Work your magic and get that man's email address and help change the world. OK, maybe not that extreme.

Lastly, and most importantly, I learned to be grateful.

This one stands on its own. I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't experienced the things I did while playing the game I love at a high level. But I also got the best of both worlds. I got to have my cake and get a taste of the real world before I was thrown into it like a raw slab of meat in a lion cage. Sometimes life is scary, and that's okay, because it's crazy to see how far you've come and how the people and things around you mold you into who you are.