Every athlete remembers the first game that they ever played.

It doesn't matter if they were six-years-old or 16-years-old; they remember stepping onto that field or that court and getting that magical feeling throughout their body. A feeling that you belonged where you were in that moment for the rest of your life. That feeling was you falling in love with the sport that you played.

So you grow up playing sports. Actually, loving sports.

You wake up before school to go outside before breakfast and play a little. You going to school and cannot get your mind off of going to the park later to practice with some friends. Then you would come home, get ready and go to real practice, all to be repeated day in and day out. It was a never ending cycle, but it was what you knew best and enjoyed most.

Growing up and playing the sport that you loved was second nature to you. Every night was spent at practice being yelled at by your coach over and over again until they got tired and just said "baseline" instead. Every weekend was spent carpooling around the country to go play in sweaty gyms full of passion and screaming parents, or on fields with bright lights and bad calls by referees.

It was what you lived for. It never really hit you that one day, it would just end, your same-day cycle would be interrupted and you eventually would play your last game. You would score your last goal, shoot your last shot and hit your last pitch. Whatever it was would come to an end once and for all.

When the day comes, part of you, if not most of you, will feel empty. You will feel like your whole life was all that hard work and dedication for nothing. Some of you will cry and that is OK because it's the equivalent of losing a loved one.

So my advice to you is when you're on that field or on that court, even if you're on the sidelines to cherish it, cherish every single moment like it is your last. Run like it's the last time you'll run for a ball, shoot like you have never shot before and play like you're falling in love again because when the clock hits zero, and the buzzer echoes for the last time, it will be time to hang up your jersey that you wore, sweat and cried in since you started, and put away the sneakers that took you so far.

It will be time to say goodbye to playing the sport that made you the person and athlete that you are today.