Being a freshman softball player, I can honesty tell you that I underestimated the strenuous commitment it takes to live the life of a Division I Boston University Terrier.
The life of a college athlete isn’t all Nike attire and free tutors as one may think.
It’s more like five-hour training days, 6 a.m. practices, meals on the run and mandatory ice baths.
It’s dedication, mental toughness and time management — on the field as well as in the classroom.
Even though being a BU athlete is a tough lifestyle, the experiences you encounter in-season makes struggling through the downfalls worthwhile.
Coming to BU, I thought during travel season we’d play some games, eat, shower, have downtime to get homework done and then go to sleep at a reasonable hour to be up for games the following morning.
Man, was I wrong.
Traveling is the furthest thing from being simplistic. It takes quite the toll on you, physically.
That’s why you have to go into the airport with a light-hearted mindset and just have fun with everything, enjoy the opportunity and try to ignore the negative aspects.
And believe me, there are negatives to traveling to a place like Arizona the week before midterms.
Imagine this is your Sunday before midterm week:
Wake up at 6:20 a.m. to hit in the cage at 8, take the field against University of California, Riverside in the dry-heat of Arizona at 9, bus around the state while trying to study for IR, eat lunch, finish a six-page paper on the red-eye and arrive in Boston just in time to grab a bite to eat in the dining hall before going straight to a 9 a.m. class the next day.
After about step three on Sunday’s agenda (playing UC Riverside), we all felt fatigued from spending so much time in the blistering sun. All we could focus our minds on was the beckoning call of our not-so-comfortable beds back home in Boston.
However, since we go to BU where professors do, in fact, assign homework and schedule tests, we were a ways away from getting some shut-eye.
So yes, after three long days in the sun — bodies fatigued — we all had to muster up enough energy and motivation to keep our eyes open and finish our homework on the bus, in the airport and on the plane.
Talk about brutal.
Heck, I haven’t even slept in a solid 43 hours and I am just now getting to this column.
No normal human would choose being stressed, time-crunched and tired every hour of the day. It’s a lifestyle only a select type of individual would choose to endure.
It takes commitment, dedication and drive to keep you going. But when you love what you do and the people around you, traveling is worth every little struggle.
Not only did we get the chance to compete away from Boston’s blistering cold climate where we’ve been practicing on literally every surface you can imagine other than dirt and grass, but I found that little things we encountered while traveling are what made the trip memorable.
For one, playing at the University of Arizona was fricken nuts! I didn’t know so many people watched softball, let alone congregated in one stadium for a preseason game. Granted, the fans were all about 50 or older and had to start clearing out by the 5th inning. I couldn’t tell you if their early departure was due to their strict bedtimes or because they couldn’t sit for any longer.
Priceless.
After our game against U of A, we ventured over to the local Boston Market for some “authentic,” home-style cooking. The locals found this as funny as we did because when we started ordering, a few guys in the corner tried sneaking some snap shots of us from across the restaurant.
Not too long after, one U of A student asked to take a picture with our entire team. It was uncomfortable, but made for a good laugh.
Speaking of creepy situations, after our Sunday game against UC Riverside, our assistant coach received a tweet to the Boston University Softball Twitter handle reading, “@BostonUSoftball is at TGIF at #ChaseField & let me tell you, they have some lookers.”
In hysterics, our team immediately split up and did a casual walk-through of the restaurant scanning tables for our new “fan.”
Everywhere we go, we have a reputation to uphold, further adding to the joys of traveling.
And let me tell you, trying to keep your cool in the airport at 1 a.m. Boston time, while trying to type an essay when all the coffee shops are closed, all the outlets are taken and your laptop and phone both die is difficult, to say the least.
But that’s part of being a college athlete — learning to deal with your given predicament and making the best of it.
When you keep a positive attitude and release your anxiety by appreciating the little things and having a few laughs, you’ll survive stressful travel scenarios and remain sane enough to finish your work.
And for those BU softball players that returned to Boston with a handful of appearances in our infamous napping collage, just blame traveling for that little added stress you feel when the collage goes social-media bound.
Better luck next week in Clearwater, Fla.
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