When I was in high school, I never really thought about what the future would hold for me sports wise. I never really expected to continue athletics throughout college. However, as a collegiate athlete, I look back at what life has given me through challenging practices and working around my sports schedule.

Being in high school meant 8 hour school days with at least one practice, if not two practices a day, and about 1.5-3 hours of homework per night. Weekends were booked with swim meets or social gatherings with your best buds, but what I never expected from swimming was how much it would prepare me for the future.

We never really know how we can handle life with jobs, education and extra curricular activities. Looking back, playing a sport is what taught me to be organized and to work hard and to get things done on time. My life revolves around practice and my days were planned between school and sports, and there was no way I was going to miss a practice if I could help it.

As a college student, I’d like to thank my parents for pushing me into sports as a kid, for encouraging me to attend swim practice and enter in swim meets and then eventually go off to swim collegiately. I never thought I would be the one to be a college athlete, let alone an organized person.

Playing a sport teaches you about working hard for the things you’re good at. It shows you how to schedule the more important things in life versus the least important and to keep a calendar containing all of your activities. I’ve somehow maintained a routine for my classes throughout the past year, and how, I couldn’t even tell ya.

Whether it be football, soccer, lacrosse, swimming or any other sport, we all find a way to be organized and have routines in our every day lives, because routines prepare us for the lives of great people.

If it wasn’t for all the time spent at practice or school, and organizing daily life around my sport, I wouldn’t be who i am today: organized and prepared for what the future holds.