I knew that playing softball and soccer in college was preparing me for the ultimate college experience, but I never realized how much I would depend on my experiences as a college athlete after graduation. Six months after graduation I still find myself shouting phrases at people that I would normally shout at my teammates during practice or as a joke... A joke that no one on the outside understands. To all my athletic friends on the verge of graduation, prepare yourselves for a few of these moments in your post-grad life.

1. Mixed feelings about the gym

You know you have to do it, but that doesn't make you anymore excited for it. Your friends aren't there to goof off with when you're finished, your coach isn't there to tell you what you're doing wrong, and you have to listen to your music with headphones because not everyone at the gym wants to hear the music that gets you hype. At the same time though once you get moving, you're golden. The feel of sweat dripping down your nose reminds you of field sprints alongside your team and you can picture trying to beat the person in front of you. The gym isn't fun alone, but nostalgia is the best companion.

2. Everything is a competition

I was hired, not because I'm an amazing insurance sales woman, but for the sole fact that I am competitive. That very well may be embedded in my genetics but playing college sports raised my competitive levels to steroid overdrive. When I go to meetings with other offices, and they talk of their success, I'm extremely proud of my colleagues but I instantly want to one up them. Most times it's not even about winning, it's about proving that I'm capable. It's similar to practices when a coach tells you you've done something exceptionally well and you know you're not finished. You may be competing against another team, or having friendly competition with your teammates, but at the end of the day you're competing against yourself to better improve who you are.

3. Remembering team jokes

On campus, it was easy to say to someone "Oh it's a softball thing," and it was totally fine because other athletes had said similar phrases at some point or another. You and your team are a unit with your own lingo in your own world. Even if it was a softball thing or a swimming thing, other athletes still understood the team bond that made you unique to other teams but also bonded athletes across the board. Once you graduate, you're walking around trying your hardest to make inside jokes with friends but it isn't the same. I actually made a bird call the other day to myself and giggled because that was a softball thing. You know what everyone in my office did? Stared at me.

4.Your appetite hasn't changed

In season, you eat everything because you need the fuel to maintain the fire on the field, track, or in the pool. Heck, even out of season you eat everything but your athletic companions don't judge you because they're stuffing their faces just as much as you are. I had a coworker ask if I had a tapeworm, another one mentioned that something smelled good in the office (my bomb food, of course) and when she found the source of the smell she said, "She's eating... Again." Jeez, thanks.

5. The coaches are no longer within walking distance

The one person in your life that had their life together was your coach. That very well may be a false statement, because coaches are human too, but it always felt that way. Sure you watched your coach panic over last minute changes to a well-planned practice because five people are suddenly injured, which throws off the entire scheme. Heaven forbid the team messes up a play because then everyone's life is in danger with hot headed coach; somehow though, coach was the only person you could count on to help you hold things together. If you knew you were going down for terrible grades it was going to be alright because your coach said so. While you were away from home if some family drama hit the fan that situation would work itself out somehow because your coach promised it would all be okay as long as you kept your mind focused on your grades. One of the best parts of your day was interacting with your coach because coach was a parent away from home, sometimes coach was your best friend. Do I get to take my coach with me when I graduate?

6.You're self aware

While everyone is off posting their cutesy drunk photos and what not, you're still self conscious about posting anything that you wouldn't want your mother, let alone your coach, seeing because it feels like the NCAA is always watching you! You sat through so many seminars warning you that what you post on your social media pages reflects back on your team that it has become habit to analyze each photo before you post it. If you let one slip through the cracks, you smack yourself in the forehead for such a rookie mistake. Hope coach didn't see that one. I'll just hide in this tub where she can't find me.

7. Adult leagues confuse you

Absolutely you want to play whenever you get the chance, but in the back of your mind you won't be with your team. The team that raised you is the only team for you, playing with any other group feels like betrayal. Yet there's still the burning desire to play. Besides, half the time the teams are stumbling around the field drunk. If you can't play and compete sober to take home the win, then what's the point? If I wanted to drunkenly play sports, I would attend family reunions. Maybe I'll just wait for the alumnae games.

8. Stalking your team's Instagram and Facebook

It only depresses you more to see the amazing leaps and bounds the team is making during pre-season. You should be out there with them flipping tires and sprinting football fields. You're proud of them, and you can't wait to follow their progress through the season, but checking out their highlights leaves an empty feeling in your gut. You miss that crazy flock of individuals. How about I just spend my weekends on campus watching the team practice and compete?

9. Car rides are NOT the same as bus rides

You may hate them now since you can't finish your homework with the team cackling and singing, or because you get motion sickness easily, but I promise that once you find yourself carpooling or riding a city bus back and forth to work you'll grow to miss those bus rides with the team. Watching movies loses its appeal because you aren't watching them on a tiny 4x6 screen with a bunch of busted speakers and you can only yell or laugh so loudly in a vehicle before it's frowned upon. Whatever you do, just don't fall asleep.

10. How do you plan workouts?

They were fairly miserable at the time, especially when you were getting up at 5 am to push heavy plates around, but you miss everything about the workouts. You miss the prepared workouts your coach set up since you now have to make up your own at the gym. There was always that one workout that you loved doing even if it was twisted and made your body ache in places that you didn't know could ache. Now you can't do those on your own. You need to make friends that will spot you, which makes you miss your team even more. Sometimes you even miss the smell of the weight room, with its cold and desolate 5 am vibes, but a room can't feel full without a family spending time together in it. Even if that time together is spent slaying the day with a good sweaty workout.

11. Leadership is on point

So many look to you for guidance and wonder how you managed to get so much of your life together so quickly. Truth is, you may not even have anything together. You're just equipped to handle a crisis of any caliber quickly and efficiently before the bullet strikes your chest.

12. Time management

The one mortal complaint we all have is that there is not enough time in the day. I feel this on the daily, but I still manage my time to the best of my abilities thanks to the many time management sessions I sat through as a freshman athlete. An hour shower is not necessary when you have four hours of homework to finish, or four hours worth of office work to catch up on. If you want those seven hours of sleep at night, you better be the most productive during the day. Planners ladies and gentleman, that is key.

13. Nap times are still the best times

I still try to crawl into strange places to nap on the spot just to squeeze in a few minutes, and my coworker judges me like none other if I try to get under my desk. I don't have time to drive all the way home to get into a bed for a thirty minute nap and car seats are only so comfortable. The floor is right there and at least no one can see me underneath my desk. This one is just a college student thing in general, but naps are definitely more valuable to athletes that get little to no sleep from time to time. Where's the convenient sofa in the athletic department when I need it?

14. Strange schedules are your comfort zone

Having a 9-5 job is fantastic and steady, but unpredictability is what I thrive on. I need those random "Olly, olly oxen free" texts on game day coach sends out so we shuffle our butts out of class to hit the road because game time changed to beat the pending storms. Hide-and-go-seek is much more fun on college campuses when you're tracking down teammates that don't check their phones in class. When I start to fall into a pattern for my weekdays-- work, gym, dinner, shower, any side work, bed, repeat-- I get anxious. I start to find tiny things to do to shake it all up. Sometimes I stop attending group events just to surprise everyone that's used to seeing me on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Other times I get antsy and beg my friends to try different things. Then I get really dramatic and tell myself I need new friends that want to do different things because I'm so anxious about falling into a pattern. Anticipation is your best friend.

The list can go on and on. To the college athletes: Enjoy it while you're there. Don't take this as sad adult nostalgia getting the best of me. Understand that being a college athlete is truly an honor and it builds your character in ways that simply attending college cannot. You are preparing for life in ways that others are not, and for that you should be thankful. Some things just aren't the same without your team.