Being an Athlete isnt all that easy

I get a lot of looks and comments from non school sponsored athletes. Comments about our diet, gear and class schedule are always the most common among the conversations that i overhear.

It may seem like we all have designed diets for every week because of the amount of attention we get in other areas of competition, but besides a quarterly talk from our nutritionist we, or I, hardly pay attention to what i should or should not be eating. I am still the same girl i was in highschool, when cereal was my after school snack and i had dessert every night. I've sat next to someone in the dorms who sat wide eyed next to me the whole meal and finally asked me if i was breaking to rules by eating pizza and fries. If anything, I think I need to pay more attention than what i do to what i eat.

I do love the gear we get for being on a sports team, in fact most of us refer to it as our second christmas! Even though it seems like we are being showered with clothing, we actually arent. We need at least two full days of gear to wear as a team out during tournaments. Not to mention the outfits we wear to weights every week. The reason we usually are wearing all of our gear during class is because we either have no time to change from weights to class, or because we have been worked so hard that there is no benefit in changing besides maybe smelling nice.

As hard as it is to believe, we are not babied with classes either. At least for my sport right now, we practice up to 6 hours in a day including weights and it is extremely difficult to find a class, much less three, that fit into that schedule. We have tutoring as a mandatory hour in our busy days to put everything aside to make sure we are understanding the material we are getting.

All in all, i know it probably still seems hard to imagine, but we are not being babied. We have workouts morning and afternoon that demand all our energy so that we are performing the best we can for UCLA. I hope you all can accept and support us on our way of becoming national champions. Go bruins!

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  • I agree with you Becca. Being an ex-athlete here at UCLA, I have experienced both sides of the spectrum. Now that I do not wear an "athlete" backpack on campus, I have overheard more comments made by fellow students regarding what they think it means to be an athlete at UCLA, and unfortunately a lot of comments are negative. Although it is true that it is athletics that may have been a major factor in bringing those students to school, it is not fair for people to assume that they do not appreciate the fact that they are at such an amazing school such as UCLA. Athletes work hard in the pool, on the court, or on the field, as well as working hard in the classroom. Keep it up. Gimme an 8 clap.
  • I couldn't agree more with you, Rebecca. As athletes, we are not given merely as much credit as we should. We, as athletes, have worked our butts off prior to college. We have participated in high school, club, and national events just to get to where we are. At such a competitive and academic school such as UCLA, we are not here just for academics but also to bring in National Championships for our college. We are up at the crack of dawn every morning, running around the track, working out in weightroom, and swimming in the pool. Next time, you see an athlete with ice on their shoulders or in all UCLA gear, give them more credit. Go Bruins.
  • When I was originally here years ago playing soccer, I used to hear the same things all the time: that we coast through classes because we have special tutoring, or that professors cater to us, never having to lift a finger to do well, or a class was deemed "easy" if even altheltes could pass it. In high school I was resented a bit because I got into UCLA for a sport when some of my classmates with better grades didn't get admitted. I always came back to the same defense: It's not at all that they work harder than I (we) did (do), it's just that we've chosen to put our efforts to something other than, but often along with, our academics. We end up working HARDER than most bc like Natasha said, we end doing the same thing all the other students do, but in the midst of exhaustion.

     

    Keep fightin the good fight

  • this is so right! Actually I really admire all the effort you guys have put in order to do good on both school work and athlete work. GO BRUINS!
  • Amen sisterrrrr!!

    Seriously the majority of non-athletes at this school just do not understand what it takes to be a student-athlete.  Its not like everything comes easier with being an athlete! Having practices that leave you sore, tired, and sunburnt, then having to do homework and do it all over agian the next day is far from easy.  Everything we do must be scheduled around our sport, therefore leaving barely any time for a norma life.  I think that non-athletes need to get off of our backs a little more, and try and be as supportive as they can.

  • Becca, you just get it.

     

    Because literally I get my butt kicked every day in scrimmage and also work so hard every day to try and improve so I can get my butt kicked a little less in scrimmage.  It seems like a never ending cycle that I pray will pay off.  I guess its hard to want to do work when you come home at 8pm after leaving the house at 6:45am and work.  But that is not a surprise to anyone.  

  • Being a fellow athlete myself I agree with you. Yes there are always perks of being a UCLA athlete but we receive those perks because of out hard work, effort, and time throughout the year. We are called student-athletes for a reason and I think many people forget that because all they see are our backpacks. We not only try hard in out sports but school also.
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