When you've played sports your whole life, the end of your athletic career may make you feel like your whole life has come to an abrupt halt: Living and breathing the sport you love has been such a part of you that you have to learn how to live without it.

Before my "retirement," my life as a college softball player came built-in with all the glorious things like 6 a.m. workouts, catching bullpens for pitchers during the day on top of regular team practice every afternoon, plus a 60-game season in the spring and summer workouts. After awhile, the idea of not devoting every ounce of your free time to your sport seems unreal, almost wrong. When your career is over, though, there are a few things in life that quickly change for you:

1. No longer do you have a coach or a team to answer to if you get hurt

I mean… you might have your mother to answer to, but there’s no playing time or a scholarship dependent on how healthy you are anymore. For the first time in years, you have the freedom to do dangerous stuff like sky dive or ski and you don’t feel the need to hide it from your coach to avoid the “Well You Could Have Hurt Yourself And I Need You Healthy” speech.

2. If you do get hurt, you can’t just go to the trainer to get treatment

While you could hurt yourself with less of a consequence after your retirement, you now have to deal with an actual health care system to get help. If you played in college, you probably had a trainer who could either treat you on the spot or get you a referral to see whatever doctor you needed. Now, you have to wait in line at the doctor go through your primary care physician and possibly multiple other doctors to get where you need to be, just like every other normal person. Cool.

3. No more 6 a.m. workouts

Enough said.

4. You’ll never have a group of girls like your teammates ever again

Seeing the same girls every day may not seem like a fun idea in theory, but very quickly, those girls become your family. You sweat, laugh and cry together on and off the field, and it’s always comforting to know that no matter what happens in your life, you’ll have your team to turn to. Yes, you can get sick of each other, but what sisters don’t fight at times?

5. You don’t have to work your life around your sport anymore

No one seems to understand how much you have to give up for your sport. There are always family vacations that have to be put on hold or shortened so you could get back home to practice, or jobs you couldn’t have because the employer wasn’t willing to work around your schedule. Now, you can plan almost anything long-term without having to worry about possibly having games or practice that day.

While this does mean that you have to face real life without being able to use softball as an excuse for not getting stuff done, you can actually go out and start doing things you never had the opportunity to before. Go enjoy it!