Growing up, my dad always told me that school, sports, and social were the three pillars of my life outside of home, and this was generally true. If I wasn’t at home, I was out—doing one of those three in some regard. He also told me that as hard as I tried, I could never have all of these things fit perfectly into my life at the same time. If someone asked me a year ago—in my senior year of high school, I would have definitely claimed that I had proven my dad wrong. However, now that I’m in college, I think that he may have been right all along, but I’m working to find a new balance for the next four years.
I have the privilege of being a fall sport athlete, meaning I came to Colby with a full team of upper classmates to support me through the transition. And while I would never give up soccer, this also meant that a lot of my time was taken up by soccer while other freshmen were meeting people. In the beginning of orientation, I found myself lucky that I already had nine friends in my grade, but as the month continued, I watched my roommate meet more and more people while I left for practices, team dinners, and then even full weekends.
As I worked to find a place on the team, I also worked to do well in school. Hours a night were devoted to studying and TA hours. Soon, between exerting all my energy in school and sports, my social life started to dwindle outside of the soccer team. When I realized this, I strived to be more available to those around me. I hung out late and didn’t take time for myself. A week later—I got sick; two weeks later—I got my first ever C.
Just like my dad had predicted, I couldn’t maintain the triad of a student athlete. As I move into my second month of school, I continue to try to find a balance, but I also know that some days it’s going to feel like one of my three pillars is crumbling. The lucky thing about being a student athlete is that there are so many people to support you, and I just have to find a way to balance my focus with fun. I would never give up being a student athlete for the world, and I continue to look for ways to build up my social, academic, and athletic lifestyle piece by piece. As I roll into my second quarter of college every day seems a little fuller, but every day I try my best to maintain that balance as best I can.