Paw Print Editor: Brianna Robles
When people categorize athletes, they often forget about the student part. Some people just view them as jocks but there is so much more to these individuals. Time management is a huge aspect in general but becomes a major tool of a student athletes especially during the season of their sport. As an athlete some of us find ourselves only attending University because we want the opportunity to be able to compete in our sport. While others find a balance between wanting to continue their education and the opportunity to continue to perfect their skills out of the field. Whatever the reasoning maybe we find ourselves struggling to manage our busy lives to offer the best of our abilities in and out of the classroom.
Sometimes being a student athlete feels as if we are living two different lives. We wake up each morning to be able to get a workout in before our first class and when I say wake up in the morning; we wake up before the sun begins to rise. It's the little things that often aren't noticed or consider to be a factor of our lives. There are many sacrifices that are made made on a daily basis. Once our alarms go off our day is on constant motion with hardly any pauses in between.
During the day we are students we shift our minds grab an iced coffee to go and get moving. Depending on our individual degrees we each have one thing in common and that is giving the best of our albitites in everything we do. Somedays are harder than others, but the important part is we still try our best to be the best version of ourselves. The stress is something that is always present trying to manage due dates around game day, it's not an easy life but it’s the life we choose to live. I myself often find myself wondering if any of this is worth it. I wonder if balancing athletics and education is worth it and each time, I don't have the heart to give up. The thing is even though it is a difficult lifestyle; I can't imagine living my life any other way.
In order to be a student athlete, there comes many sacrifices, and you may think what possibly could we be giving up? Well, actually a lot of things. Considering that some of us are taking 12 plus credit hours of classes, it’s hard to even find time for a social atmosphere among classes, practices, and homework. Sometimes it’s hard to find time to engage our time in anything other than those things, but it’s worth it. There are many events and activities we don't often participate in because we have a game or meet the next day. Sometimes we have to get assignments done in advance so we aren't stressing on the road that we will fall behind in classes. A lot of time goes into so much more than what people see on competition day. Our albitites as student athletes goes way beyond then the persona, we create on game day or in the classroom.
As a student athlete we are expected to maintain good gpa's while also being able to bring our "A game" out of the field. It's the little things like making sure we get enough sleep, making sure we are eating enough, making sure we aren't doing too much that our mental health may not be able to handle. A lot of things go into being able to balance both our school and athletics life. Some people are better at handling it better than others, but the point is as student athletes we do the best of our ability to represent who we are individually while also representing Adams State by wearing our jerseys showing our pride.
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