It’s a horrible feeling isn’t it? The feeling of taking your uniform off for the final time, knowing you will never wear it again, knowing that your athletic career is over? Handing over the uniform that has experienced your blood, sweat and tears for four years, is no easy task. Some might even say it’s painful. You will realize that jersey is no longer yours and that number no longer represents you. It’ll be passed on to some deserving underclassman, but you will hate the thought of it. You’ll hate the thought of being a washed up athlete, a mere memory in your school’s athletic program. I experienced these feelings three times throughout my senior year of high school and it never got easier.

I was a three season athlete all four years of high school. I played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and ran track in the spring. The emotions that come with playing in your final season are overwhelming. You put pressure on yourself to have an awesome season because you don’t want to go out on a bad note. However, you also focus on having fun and enjoying the game with your teammates. The friendships you form throughout high school sports are incredible. You try not to think about it being your final season, but the little voice in the back of your head is constantly reminding you. This motivates you to give 110 percent every game, not that you wouldn’t already.

As the season starts to wind down, the emotions begin to hit harder. You’re constantly telling yourself “I’m not going to cry, I’m not going to cry” but the next thing you know its senior night and you’re bawling like a baby. You will bawl even harder when you walk off the field, the court, or the track for the last time. The worst part is not knowing when that will be.

If you don’t make the playoffs then it’s not a problem, but if you do there is the uncertainty of not knowing when it will end. When it does finally end it will hit you like a ton of bricks.

You knew eventually your time as an athlete would come to an end, you tried to prepare yourself, but no one can prepare themselves for the emotions that come with saying goodbye to the sports you’ve given 10 plus years of your life too. You don’t know how to handle it and more importantly you don’t know what to do with your free time.

You replay games and some of your best memories over and over again. You think of the coaches and teammates who motivated and inspired you and eventually you cope with the loss of your athletic career. Eventually you take the uniform off.

For me, taking off my soccer uniform was really tough. It was the sport I excelled at most and had been playing since I was five years old. I had given everything I had to the game and was sad to see it come to an end. I eventually took it off and handed it back in, hoping some underclassmen would have as successful as a career as I did wearing number twelve. Soccer may have been the toughest sport to walk away from but my track uniform was the toughest to part with. Track was the final sport I participated in senior year.

By taking off that jersey I was ending my high school career forever. I would no longer be a Tewksbury Redmen. I would become an alumni. I remember sitting in my uniform for hours, unwilling to except my inevitable fate. I did though, and you will too. When it comes time and the moment feels right, you will take off your uniform one last time and say goodbye to all the sports you love; all the sports that made you who you are today.