College is said to be the best four years of your life. In this point in your life, you meet so many people who will probably be there for a lifetime. You will experience new adventures and overcome challenging exams in the classroom. College shows you how to be more of an adult as you prepare yourself for a career in whatever field you chose to major in and better yourself as a person. Everyone talks about how to survive college, but they don’t tell you how to be a student-athlete.

Being a student-athlete is one of the most rewarding and stressful things ever. You have to maintain different activities at one time, including the fact that you have to maintain a certain GPA to be qualified as an athlete on any team. Being part of a basketball, football or volleyball team requires practice every day, weight training, sponsorships or fundraising, meeting with coaches, conditioning and more. Students athletes have much more to prioritize than the average student.

I know firsthand what it's like to be a student-athlete. Every day, I am running from class to the next class and then to the café to make sure I get some kind of protein in my body because I know I have weights later. Being a dancer is just as much as a sport as being on the soccer team. I have to make sure I am flexible to do a toe touch, just like soccer players have to have quick footwork moving the ball to score. I also have a part-time job working for a pizza place. I'm trying to be the best dancer on my team while making sure all my assignments are turned in on time and going to work so that I have a steady income monthly to survive. I hardly have time to go out because of papers that I have to write and edit. It takes hours to write a decent paper that requires research and critical thinking. Students with biology or sociology majors have more to maintain with labs in between classes and practices. College can be the best and worst four years at the same time.

Not only do athletes have to go to attend class every day along with practice, they have to try and have a social life and figure out their personal life with family or a girlfriend/boyfriend. It's hard when you want to visit your family during Christmas or Thanksgiving but you can't because of an away game or extra practice for a big event coming up. We also have to finish up midterms during that time as well.

Student athletes are one of the strongest people in my opinion. We are trying to get a degree, improve as an athlete and better ourselves as a person. All that hard work pays off in the end, when the sweat, blood and tears will be worth all the stressful days working long hours in the library to study for exams and writing papers. When it’s time to shine on the field or in my case, the dance floor, balancing everything as a student-athlete and being successful is the best feeling in the world.