Challenges of a Student-Athlete
By Lily Zavras
Being a student-athlete has provided me with so many amazing opportunities and experiences that I am incredibly grateful for. It has brought so many amazing people into my life that have played a key role in shaping the person I am today. But, the one thing that I could have done without is all the stress and anxiety that came along with being a student-athlete. Battling my stress and anxiety has been one of the hardest challenges I have had to face, but ironically, I think it has had the biggest positive impact on my life. While weird to say, it’s also completely true. The biggest challenge I faced was the pressure I put on myself to perform well in both the classroom and on the field. For the longest time, I used to worry about what people would think about me, what they would say if I got a bad grade or had a bad game and what impact that might have on my future of playing in college, which was my ultimate goal for as long as I remember. The pressure to keep my grades up while also having games and practice almost every day required proper planning to avoid falling behind. This is something I struggled to learn how to do. Figuring out how to do it all caused such anxiety. How was I supposed to get everything done? I was so afraid of falling behind. At one point, it felt as though both my anxiety and stress were consuming my life and made me feel like I was drowning and gasping for air. Thankfully, with some help from the people that surround me, I realized in the end that no one cares about all that stuff. All the pressure you feel to excel at these things stems from one person, YOURSELF. It took me a while to realize that, but the minute I did, the pressure seemed to lessen, and I realized that I was in control of what I felt. Now that I know that I am in control of where the pressure comes from, I use it to push myself, but I don’t allow it to consume me, and when it does, I know that I have an amazing support team that will be there for me to help me bounce back. Now that it is my senior year of high school, I think the stress was ultimately worth it because it has prepared me for the next step. Next year I will be playing field hockey at a Division 2 program, and the skills I learned now will be even more essential for my next step in life.
