Mariel Gutierrez

Being a student-athlete

The life of a student-athlete is not easy. I know about it because I struggle everyday with classes and practices. It is not just attending classes, being at practice, and having fun. It is about giving a hundred percent of yourself, running, trying to be the best for your team. It is about learning all the topics of different classes to maintain or even improve your GPA.

In one hand, an athlete playing at college should sleep approximately nine hours per day to be able of recover for the next practice or practices of the next day. On the other hand, college and homework force you to change your hours of sleep to hours of study, letting you get just six or seven hours of sleep. Therefore, student-athletes do not rest enough to reach their maximum potential while studying or practicing.

The secret of student-athletes is the management of time, stress and pressure. Our days are too short for all the responsibilities each day. The management of time is not a recommendation, it’s an obligation. It may sound like hell, and to be honest, in a certain way, it is. Even though it is tough, it helps you become more competent and capable to solve problems. At the end of the day, a good grade or a goal shows you that everything you did was worth it.