The daily life of a college athlete has its ups and downs — and who can tell this better than the student-athletes themselves.

“It’s stressful to be expected to not only be an athlete but to be a full-time student at once… not to mention the want to be involved with other activities and social platforms,” said Kyle Brown of AIC Rugby.

It is incredibly hard to satisfy everyone when you are expected to manage your time wisely and to be productive while you are free. It is not as simple as looking at a schedule and pointing out when you are available to do work. You wake up, go to class for a couple hours, have an hour gap, to then go eat lunch, followed by practice and conditioning.

When you are done you go have dinner to maybe have a team lift later that night. You get back to shower and it is already 10 p.m., so where did time go, exactly?

Socially you do not have enough time to have friends it seems like. In contrast, a normal everyday student can make it so that he has all day to be productive. So much time to be used up and so little worry about, at least much less to worry about.

It is unfair to say that college athletes have it easier than others, because you must consider the various things that they must go through.

“It is tough to go sacrifice your body and worry about performing and come back to the annoyance of what is school,” said Javon Browne of SCSU regarding this topic.

“There are days where I have to skip or just flat out miss lunch or dinner,” said Andrew Ciaccerelli of AIC Baseball when asked about his daily schedule.

If it were up to the athletes themselves, they would not change their daily schedules. They feel that although it can be a pain, that it is necessary and can be helpful in future instances. Athletes perform when under pressure and maybe the stress will bring their best right out of them although often it doesn’t.

Aside from school, many athletes have outside distractions or issues that may take away from their abilities to produce in the classroom. If you have ever wondered where athletes get the time to socialize, it is mainly through classroom-oriented things.

It is common to have your group of friends, but it makes courses easier when that number of friends grows. You will have more information to work with, with the help of your classmates and peers.

Your teammates are probably the best help with anything and everything, because you all hang together and communicate best, so athletes tend to rely on teammates and even coaches to help when help is needed.

Brendan Lavallee of AIC Baseball had this to say about his difficulties with class, “I know that I can rely on my buddies to help me out when I need it, we just have that connection and sense of unity… there is a great atmosphere within our team.”

Lastly, balancing studies and athletics is a tough thing that student-athletes need to overcome during their time in college.

Many high school athletes are unaware of what they should expect from college athletics and it is to be understood from this perspective. This is a great chance for high school athletes to understand the struggles that college has for them.

“It is without great doubt that when we leave college, we will not miss the struggle of being there, but we will miss it all,” said Dan Slouzy of Endicott.