CNUsports.com has asked senior women's lacrosse player Stephanie Green to give fans a look at life as a Division III student-athlete. Balancing school work, practice and much, much more, Green provides an inside look in her weekly blog.
"Never Give Up"
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving break!! Here's some questions for you:
Did you hit up the Black Friday sales over Thanksgiving break?
Do you have your radio tuned to holiday tunes?
Are holiday decorations already posted up in your room?
Is that "tacky" Christmas sweater hanging in your closet ready for use?
I don't know about you, but I'm SO EXCITED FOR WINTER BREAK!!! Unfortunately, we all have to truck through a few more weeks before we can celebrate the semester coming to a close.
Three weeks left! That's it! Don't throw in the towel yet! I'm an athlete, and most of you are athletes, were athletes, watch athletes, or want to be an athlete. Speaking from that perspective, think about this: Athletes NEVER give up. It's in our nature. We do not stop at anything less than success.
Put yourself in one of these scenarios:
Volleyball players - You have 1 minute left in the last game-defining set.
Baseball players - It's the bottom of the 9th, with a runner on third that could be the winning run.
Lacrosse players - It's overtime with 30 seconds left, in the game that decides your tournament fate.
Golfers - It's the 18th hole and you need a birdie to put you at the top of the leader board for the day.
What do you do?
Spike harder.
Catch every pass.
Throw and putt more accurately.
Push yourself.
Run faster.
Focus more.
Work harder.
But NEVER give up.
That's what we're going to have to do in these next three weeks: DON'T GIVE UP. It's crunch time: the hardest point in the semester, where you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, fatigued, and eager to be done. But what do you want? THE WIN.
Just like in sports, we, as student-athletes, need to excel and win in the classroom. We need to achieve to the best of our abilities. In these next three weeks filled with classes and finals, think about how you perform on the field/court/turf/etc. Do you throw aside everything you've worked for throughout the semester? Do you go easy on yourself? Do you let things stay how they are with no extra effort? No. We're athletes. We're fighters. We NEVER give up.
Good luck to everyone in these next few weeks. I know things will be hectic and we may feel overwhelmed, but let's keep fighting. Only a few more weeks and then we'll be free to head home, sing those holiday tunes with our families, see our own personal house glimmering with decorations, and wear those "tacky" Christmas sweaters to awkward family parties.
-Steph
PS: Stay tuned for next week's blog post about my very own nonprofit adaptive lacrosse program, AdaptLax!
