Bella Riccitelli
Sports Editor
Life comes at you fast. Right now, you might be a student athlete. You can remember one day when you were a child, you were playing your favorite sport in the front yard with the neighborhood kids. As the years passed by in your life, you found yourself as a member of your school’s team and enjoyed every second of it.
Throughout college, some students participate in their school’s sports teams. What many might not realize is that for student athletes, their world revolves around their practices, games, competition and everything in between.
College is the last bridge that completes the crossing into the real world. If you’re not a college athlete, it might not seem like a big deal. But for those who have revolved their lives around this sport, it could be overwhelming.
While the promise of getting picked up and recruited to work in the professional field of their sport is always a possibility, the likelihood of it happening to most is not too possible.
Preparing for going into the real world and saying goodbye to a school-played sport is something that should be at the top of each college athlete’s “to do” list.
For those who are college athletes, their schedules are pretty much packed from morning to night. Staying in shape and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not only easy, but a ritual for those who take part in college sports.
While living in this tightly packed schedule might seem like something that comes naturally, any sort of schedule that doesn’t get followed daily is something that could lead to these new graduates to easily fall off track.
If you’re a student athlete reading this, falling off track isn’t the next thing that you need to focus on.
Planning a schedule and promising to yourself to maintain this plan is something that could really come in handy. Keeping up with your health, continuing to work out and staying active is totally possible. You could do this.
Living in the world as a student athlete comes with security in more ways than one. Teammates who you have grown close with and developed a bond were always there for you. Coaches looked out for you and had your back all throughout your time on their team.
As a college athlete, the focus was probably on you most of the time, if not your team as a whole. Upon graduating, you might find that with the focus shifting off you and onto others, and this realization might bring anxiety into your life.
Leaving the familiarity behind and entering the unknown could be intimidating for many students once graduating. However, what is important to keep in mind is all of the skills you probably have learned while living as a college athlete.
Many times, the team you’re on is taken seriously by your peers, teammates and those who are involved in a professional manner. Once graduating and basically getting spit into the real world, demeanors may shift and you’ll start to realize you are once again a tiny fish in a sea of larger fishes.
Similar to a reflex learned while playing your sport, your mind might go into overdrive while you try to gain control in your future.
I’m not an expert and I’m surely not an athlete. But I think what is important is to keep in mind that you can handle this. You have handled many similar, difficult obstacles in your past as a student athlete. You’ve competed against teams who you never thought you would. You’ve worked out, trained and transformed your body into what it is now. And above all else, you beat the odds by becoming a student athlete.
Keep in mind that all of that was hard to do but you did it. You can handle life after competeing in college sports.
riccbj@mail.broward.edu