I am constantly battling to get my work done on time. Six straight hours of working and grinding, but I always need more, never ever able to be down with my work and trapped in this revolving loop over and over again.

Ever since my freshman year started, I’ve had more on my plate for school—papers, quizzes, tests, and projects galore. Trying to balance that with sports on top of it all can be so hard, and quite frankly, way too much.

I feel like I bring it on myself by being an athlete.

I wish I was better at time management; I procrastinate a lot, and it sets me back because after school, I am right to practice and I’m gone for two to three hours. Then, when I’m done, I have it all left and it feels impossible, and I feel so behind. I feel like I’m always in a race that I am behind in. And that I never got a fair start in this race, because everything is a frantic struggle to catch up.

During the sports season, I feel my academics crumble beneath me. I hate that feeling because I strive to be the best academic student I can be, and I put in the work and the study time. I feel after practices and games, my brain is already so drained and the homework feels like rocket science and feels impossible to complete.

I really wish I was better at managing time and getting my stuff done, especially during the season for sports. I feel like during the day and then practice, my max brain power goes into those two things, and then when it is over, I have a pile of work taller than me.

Every day I try to work on making the two tasks I have doable. I have buckled down more in school and after practices; I get right to work. But, I just wish it was easier for some reason. It is such a hard thing to balance sports and academics, but at the end of the day, it shouldn’t be too hard, but it is very challenging for me. I’m always experimenting with new easy to make me more officiant during practice and on school work but I still have a lot of work to do to be able to balance the two.

At the end of the day, I will always keep wishing balancing school and sports was not so hard. But since freshman year, I feel like a dump truck of work has hit me as hard as it can every day when I am least expecting it. I just hope I eventually master balancing the two, because right now, it is a big struggle.