As a student-athlete, my college experience has been quite different than your typical college student. I am up before the crack of dawn running in below freezing temperatures, and I spend most of my day running from classes to practice without being able taking a shower. I run to the point of pure exhaustion and continue to go until my coach says stop. I spend every weekend at track meets competing against other college athletes and spend the time between my events cheering on my teammates. I attend back-to-back meetings right after practice, I volunteer my time to serve the community, and I still put hours upon hours into my schoolwork and other extracurricular activities outside of the athletic world. As a student-athlete, I give up the ability to have a typical college experience by committing to play a sport while pursuing my college degree. Although I can not speak for all student-athletes, I can say that we all play sports, but we are also students, something non-student athletes seem to forget. With that said, there are many misperceptions people have about us student-athletes.

1. Not all of us are attending college on scholarships, and if we are, most of us do not recent a full ride.

This is probably the most common misconception normal college students have about us athletes. I have heard so many times that is it not fair that athletes get to go to school for free just to play a sport. In reality, most of us do not get to go to school for free. We may get some scholarship money, but we are still paying thousands of dollars in tuition every year. Each person chooses how to pay for college. Most take out loans, apply for other scholarships or enroll in a work-study program, Athletes just choose to pay for college by dedicating four years representing their university by competing in a sport that we have dedicated most of our lives to. We are just like any other student receiving financial aid for college, so please stop thinking we are going to school for free or that we don’t deserve to have support from our university.

2. We're actually very smart and work hard to be successful in our academics.

My cross-country team’s overall GPA for the last semester was a 3.45, higher than most college students’ GPA’s. Although we are athletes, we are students first. This means our coaches and advisors make sure we are putting our academics first before anything else. At my university, if your GPA is under 2.5, you lose your eligibility to compete. If we want to continue to be apart of a team, we have to make sure our grades are a top priority.

3. We don’t party… all the time.

In between early morning practices, 18 credit hours of classes, meets and games on the weekends, work, mandatory community service, internships, and every other activity student-athletes are involved in, we don’t have much of a social life. A lot of people assume that we athletes party and drink all the time. Let me tell you how inaccurate that idea is. Yes, we party, yes we drink… almost every college student does. We do not, however, do it all the time. We have priorities, commitments, and expectations from our coaches, professors, teammates, and ourselves to not over indulge in drinking. We have a lot of pressure on ourselves to excel in every area of our lives and don’t have time to be hung over every morning. We work very hard and sometimes deserve to have a night out every once in a blue moon.

4. We get extra perks, but we deserve them.

We get priority scheduling, we get athletic trainers who wait on us hand and foot, we get free gear, and we get meal money when we travel. We are exempt from class when we have a game, match, or meet. We get an extra advisor who basically plans out our schedules for us (and we can never be so grateful). As student-athletes, we receive a lot of services that most college students don’t get. But we deserve and work hard to receive everything we get. We push our bodies to the max, we give up the ability to have your normal college experience, and we bring a lot of publicity and revenue to our schools. Our schedules are chaotic and we need all the help we can get to get into the classes we need because after all, we are students too. With all the things we receive, we also give up a lot that the average college student gets to have.

5. We are just like everyone else.

There are days where we don’t want to go to class, we worry about not having a high enough GPA, or if the cafeteria will make us sick if we eat their fish. We play a sport, but it is just one part of our lives. We all have our passions and we all have the right to pursue them. That is what college is for, to pursue our passions. Just because we play a sport at the collegiate level, doesn’t make us think we are better than other students; in fact, we sometimes are jealous of all the freedom other students have. We love our sports, however, and nothing feels more rewarding than representing your university by competing in a sport that you have fallen in love with.

I am not about getting a scholarship, getting drafted, or making Sports Center. It’s a deep need in us that comes from the heart. We need to practice, play, and lift, to hustle, to sweat, and to compete. We do it for our teammates. We don’t lift weights with a future Olympic wrestler; we lift with a future doctor. We don’t run with a future Wimbledon champion; we run with a future CEO. It’s a bigger part of us than our friends and family can understand…You know more than just our names. Like you, we are students first. We don’t sign autographs for money. But we do sign college applications, SAT exams, and student body petitions. When we miss a kick or strike out, we don’t let down our entire state. We only let down our teammates, coaches, and fans. But the hurt in our hearts is the same. We train hard, lift, throw, run, kick, shoot, dribble, swim, and lift some more, and in the morning we go to class. Still the next day, we are nothing but students. It’s about the pride -- in ourselves and our school. It’s about our love and passion for the game. And when it’s all over, when we walk off that court or field for the last time, our hearts crumble. Those tears are real. But deep down inside, we are very proud of ourselves and our school. We will forever be what few can call themselves… student-athletes.