Sports.

For those of us who play them, they’re everything to us.

Personally, my entire life has been dedicated to the world of sport from the major I’m focusing on in college, to my entire lifestyle. This includes lifting, playing club football while In college, and of course, participating in pick-up games and multiple intramural sports.

We love playing our sport. It has molded our lives in so many ways, but everyone’s experience is different – here’s mine.

Since I was little, I can remember sports being the focus of my childhood. I was always outside throwing the ball around with my dad and older brother and running. I loved to run.

As I got older, I started my sporting life in flag football (because my mom didn’t want me to play pee wee). This is where sports started to change my life, even from a young age. Little did I know, football would be my avenue for so many paths in my life.

In flag football, I fell in love with the sport. Not only that, but I met my best friend at the time.

This moment blossomed into a life full of football, but it wasn’t always the best situation. In middle school and high school, my hometown team was absolutely horrible. If you know anything about Vermilion, Ohio, you’d know football is the second thought to our town.

Not because our community doesn’t love the game, but because over my four years in school we were a combined 4-36.

Yes, 4-36.

But this is where I learned everything that has impacted my life because of football. I learned how to deal with stress during a game. Also, the grueling task of going to practice every day and knowing that even on Friday, it might not pay off.

I met some of my closest friends, future college roommates and how to handle the week in and week out letdown of losing, which happened often.

I guess what I realized is that sport always has a silver lining. For me, that was playing club football at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Here at Miami, over the last two years we’ve been a combined 16-2, and this past season we were the National Runners Up. That isn’t everything to me, but what is everything to me was the friends I’ve made through the sport once again.

The brotherhood we have is unlike anything I’ve experienced. I’ve learned how to become a better leader, friend, teammate and even son because of the way football as affected my life.

For some of you, football might not be “your” sport.

Whatever sport is yours, I challenge you to take some time to think about how it’s changed your life. Think about what it adds to your life for better or for worse, the positives and the negatives, and even if you’re still playing or if you do it recreationally.

The way sport relates to everything in our lives is crazy to think about. It teaches you that you have to work for what you get in life. Nothing is handed to you, and it really isn’t.

Sport teaches us how to deal with our biggest hardships, and our highest highs. It is relatable in every aspect of your life; from the workplace, in your friend groups, and in your personal life.

As I remember my journey through sports in my life, I know there has been a fair share of letdowns and there has been payoffs, but the way I feel when I’m out there now is that all those positive memories come rushing back.

I remember my first touchdown, the first time I played catch with my dad and I could actually throw the ball back to him. I remember seeing my mom in the stands for the first time and knowing she was proud even when I knew she had no idea what was going on—Love you, Mom.

Regardless, sports are my life and they have impacted me in a way that will affect me for the rest of my time at Miami.

If you play a sport, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, I’m sure you have your own passions that make you feel like this.

But for me, there’s only one thing that can cheer me up, lock me in and continues to mold my life in positive ways until I’m done playing.