This past weekend my teammates and I started our softball season in the U.P. This weekend showed me that I not only play a sport that I love, but out of it I gained 18 new family members.

We spent 16 hours on a bus together, we ate 8 meals together and we played 4 games together. So as you see we spent pretty much every second of everyday together. And guess what? I didn't get sick of any of them. I wish I could describe in gracefully written words about how amazing being a student athlete is at a D3 school, but in all honesty I'm pretty sure this article would turn into a novel.

When you are a D3 athlete, you not only have your parents and teammates cheering you on; you have every other sport cheering you on also. At my school each team is given a brother or sister team. This means those teams turn into the BIGGEST supporters for that team. This year we were given basketball. We went to as many games as we could and during this past weekend while they were in the MIAA Championship tournament we streamed every game cheering them on while we were in a dome in the middle of nowhere. (They won the tournament because they are the best.) While we were playing our games, the baseball team were watching our games online. You don't just play for you and your team as a D3 athlete, you play for every other team and your school because they are also playing for you and your school.

Coming into college I didn't know what to expect as a student athlete. But it turns out all the stress and lack of time you have sometimes is so worth it because you and a crap ton of other athletes are right there beside you doing the same thing as you. You are apart of this amazing community of people who love what they do just as much as you and are always winning to help in anyway possible.

Sometimes some people think you might sick of being around the same 18 people everyday for multiple hours but in all honesty, all it does is bring people closer. And I love it.

I wouldn't change my life for anything. Because if I didn't play a sport I wouldn't be able to eat as much as I do. And that really bumbs me out.