For the past few months I have been living what feels like should be an up and coming episode of MTV’s True Life: I decided to be a college athlete. Let me elaborate. The title would actually need to read: I decided to become a college athlete during the last semester of my senior year of college with no prior experience on an organized sports team, unless middle school track counts, which I did because I thought the boys were cute.
The story goes something like this. Five months ago I was chowing down on a Philly cheesesteak at the Baldwin City Diner when my roommate challenged me to join the track team as a race walker. Yes, this is the technical name and it is a real event. As a senior I decided I had nothing else to lose and to be completely honest, I dreamed of being a real-life athlete. Thus, I earnestly worked to convince the track coach that I could be a race walker.
After many hours of watching absurd YouTube videos of race-walking, wiggling around the track silently singing Shakira’s “Hip’s Don’t Lie” and giving up on trying to look cool, I managed to complete a few race-walking events. Please keep in mind that the entire football team was on the field as I practiced, which was a bit embarrassing to say the least.
However, what I learned yields far beyond the track. I gained a sincere admiration for college athletics and the immense amount of dedication it takes to be a college athlete.
Before walking on – no pun intended – to the track team, I had no idea of the time commitment, mental stamina and devotion necessary to be a college athlete. My friends have always been athletes and as a freshman I used to dread 3:35 p.m., because it meant that almost all my friends were at practice. I had no idea what they were doing during the one-and-a-half to two hour time periods. But I’ve now learned.
Alongside becoming totally comfortable swinging and kicking my legs around on the floor to “dynamically stretch” and trying to differentiate between A and B skips, which I still cannot do, I had to completely rearrange my academic and social life. After a full day of class, practicing for two hours, making dinner and then attending organization meetings, sending a simple email was a strenuous task. The student-athletes who complete these tasks for four years, maintain a high GPA and maintain some sort of social life deserve a great deal of honor. I now understand why college athletes are one of the most heavily recruited job applicants out of college – they can do almost anything.
As this season comes to an end for many sports teams, I want to congratulate each and every student-athlete. You have all blown me away. Thank you for the glimpse of your astonishing talents, devotion and commitment.
