Appreciate Life

Life as a high school student athlete leaves you with busy nights and barely any sleep. You are always extremely tired and wanting to just sleep all day every day. As the days go on, you continue with your normal routine and simply go through the motions. If there is ever the chance, you will go to sleep early. This is the average life of anyone who plays sports, but why do we let ourselves do that? High school student athletes do not appreciate their everyday life nearly enough.

The sport you have chosen to play must be important to you, otherwise you wouldn't be continuing to play it. At practice it may seem like you do the same drills every day or you start to get bored of the activities. Appreciate the coaches and athletes that surround you. Appreciate the person next to you pushing you to get better. Life is so great and wonderful, that we sometimes seem to forget because we are caught up with the stresses of our everyday life. You have been blessed to be able to compete in the sport you love and attend school in order to prepare for the life ahead of you. Athletes need to understand that other countries don't have the same opportunities as us. Other schools might not offer the same things as yours. Some countries don't even have the sport you play. Be appreciative of the situation you are in, no matter how awful it seems. There is always someone else going through a struggle much more difficult than your own.

Appreciating life isn't simply being happy all of the time, but enjoying every moment, bad and good. Making memories and being grateful for everything you have is being appreciative. High school student athletes always get caught up in how they are performing, but if you just stop for a minute and take a look that all you have accomplished you can go so much farther. Knowing that you have potential and can increasingly get better, while enjoying every second of it, is going to make you a better player. Appreciate the coach you aren't too fond of, or the teammate you don't really get along with, because they were put into your life for a reason. You are capable of anything if you have a little bit of courage and do not take anything for granted. Life is short, so make the most of it.