Yes, I am a student athlete and I kinda have a social life. If you consider a social life by having 15 new friends in the span of 4 months then, yes I do. Sometimes I question why I played a sport that took up almost every minute of my life, but then I always go back to it.

Ever since I was little, I always had so many friends and connections to new people that I met through my sport and man, was I blessed or what? With this being, I used to be at every pool party, team dinner, and sleepover there ever was. At this age my social life was thriving, like the athlete, I planned to be. I had a great social life. I always had new friends, people to hang out with on the weekends, and plenty of parties to go to in middle school. My parents always encouraged me to meet new friends because my sport was the only thing I ever had.

In high school, I found out that it got a little harder to have a social life. And if you're like me, you're balancing a job, a sport, and school, which is a little harder than it appears. Like my sport, soccer, I constantly told people I couldn't hang out with them because I was at practices or games and I always felt bad letting people down because of my sport literally took over my life.

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Practices twice a week and maybe up to four games every weekend. Talk about a job on top of a job. Yes, I attended high school parties and social outings. But, did I have time for them?? Not exactly. With the season being in almost all four seasons, (yes, even the infamous midwest winters) I never caught a break from the sport but it did benefit me in the end. I was always somewhat in shape and still love working out, so there's one plus.

But the one time I knew that I didn't have a social life with soccer was when it interfered with school activities, like meetings, dances, and even homework study groups. It definitely got tough to choose over staying up 'til 1 a.m. doing homework after soccer or skipping a practice and finishing that 150-point project. I thought after high school, my social life would get way better in college. Boy, was I wrong?

Now in college, it's a whole new ball game... let me tell ya. I'm a full-time student, taking 16 credit hours, practicing every day from 3-5, and working a part-time job. But don't forget the 30-minute commute to school every morning to the classes that I have every day of the week. Then there's the soccer games, the long travels out-of-state, spending hours in the academic center for athletes because it's required. But you bet that I make the most out of it.

Then there are the downsides of playing the sport you love at the collegiate level. Telling people you can't hang out because you're gone that weekend, missing out on your high school friends coming back from college, and skipping out on meeting new people or hanging out with them. People constant get upset if you can't hang out because you're too tired or you are busy with soccer that whole day, but it's not like you can do anything about it. It is honestly just how things go, but people will never understand the relationship between athletes and a social life.

So next time you don't understand why you play a sport in college, just realize it pays off in the end. And just because you don't have the most-perfect social life, doesn't mean that your life is over — I promise.