“I can’t - I have practice,” is a text I’m used to sending to my friends. I’m used to missing out on social events and spending time with family because of practice, that was just a sacrifice I had to make. But since starting a college sport I have come across many new challenges and sacrifices I wasn’t expecting.

Many dream of having the opportunity to play a sport in college and few are able to achieve that goal. But for those who do succeed the work does not stop there, in fact, they’re just getting started. I often hear about dreams; people are told "Go after your dreams" and "Try your hardest to achieve your dreams." But many fail to point out what happens after you achieve that dream.

For me, my dream was to become an athlete for college track and field. The day I received the email from my future coach telling me I was on the team, I was in my math class and I cried. I felt like all the hard work I had been putting in for the past five years finally paid off.

Now that I have been running with the track and field team for around two months, I have learned so much about myself and what I’m made of it’s unbelievable. But one aspect of my life I did not expect to have huge lesson in was managing my time.

At times college feels like walking down a long hallway. You are presented with many doors along your way and sometimes you will open the door to your right instead of the door to your left. I often opened the student door; spending late nights at the library studying for midterms or in my dorm room writing essays. Other times I opened the athlete door; running hard workouts, lifting weights, icing and stretching before and after practice. With all this time dedicated to my school work and track I was hardly able to open my own door; where I am just myself. The door where I’m not an athlete, I’m not a student, I’m just me.

Once I got into my first month as a college freshmen I felt each door become more demanding. I needed to be more of a student, more of an athlete and a better friend. Somewhere along the way I slightly lost where I fit in in all of this, and in the stress of it all I lost a lot of my personality.

In addition, the negativity from my friends did not help. I often heard “You’re always in the library,” “Are you avoiding me?” or “Why are you so tired all the time?” These comments quickly got old and I started to get tired of defending myself. Many of my non-athletic friends did not understand just how much time goes into my sport. And my athletic friends didn't understand why I spent so much time doing homework.

It wasn’t until I spent a couple hours by myself, touring the new town I live in, that I finally figured out how to deal with all the stress that was now in my life. On my adventure I found a hide-away old bookstore where I spent thirty minutes just looking around. I was reminded of how much I loved to read. I was reminded of my personality that I forgot while I was trying to be an athlete, a student and a friend.

It was then that I realized that no matter what comes along the way in my future and no matter how many doors I have in my life I always need to bring my personality with me. At the end of the day my personality is what gets me through both the good and the bad.

I know that in the future school will become more demanding, practices will get even harder and I won’t stop hearing negative comments form my friends, but as long as I keep working hard and as long as I keep my personality, I’ll be just fine.