How Sports Have Changed My Life

How Sports Have Contributed to My High School Experience 

By Julia Dykstra

The blog post topic for this month is
creative writing, but since I am not very creative, I thought I would talk about one of the most time consuming, but also influential activities in my life. For a lot of people, sports are participated in for the social aspects or are used as a form of exercise in order to get in shape. Some people play sports because they really love the game. However, for me, it is much, much more than that. 



I play 3 sports: volleyball, basketball, and lacrosse. Since I play these sports year round and club lacrosse during the summer, sports take up any free time I have. It gets to be challenging to balance sports with school, but I prioritize both and push myself to do the best I can in both endeavors. I contribute so much of my time to sports for the obvious and typical reasons. Yes, I play sports because I like to spend time with my friends, I like to exercise, and because I love the sports I'm playing. But sports are my therapy. 




With a heavy course load, a job, and sports year round, I can get pretty stressed and upset feeling like I can't do everything I want to. Even if I can, my high standards for myself make it so that everything I do, I have to do to the best of my ability. That kind of pressure can be stressful. Sports are the only way I personally have found that allows me to relieve my stress while doing something I love. 



After the best and the worst days, I am always looking forward to practice or a game after school or early on Saturday mornings. Whenever I step onto the court or onto the field, I feel like I've escaped my regular life and have gone to a whole new world. Something about sweating out any stress I have makes me instantly feel so much calmer. Working my butt off during practice or in a game makes me push myself in physical ways that I could not be by simply doing school work. The sense of accomplishment I feel after doing well in sports is unmatched to any other feeling, and it relieves me of all the pressure I had previously placed on my own shoulders. 



In this way, I believe sports are my therapy. Not only does the physical participation in sports help me in unmatched ways, but have also introduced me to some of my best friends and most influential people in my life. Coaches can get through to you and show the specific interest in you in a way many teachers cannot. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by uplifting coaches who are so passionate about their sport and the athletes that play it. These coaches have proven to be some of the most influential people in my life and I would not be who I am today without them. 



The friendship between teammates can be completely different from the friendships formed outside of sports, in the best way possible. Sports introduce you to so many new people who you otherwise may not have ever known. By working as a team, you each push each other to be better and want one another to succeed. I am also so extremely fortunate to be surrounded by amazing teammates who became amazing, and hopefully lifelong friends. From personal experience, I can say that my lacrosse team last year introduced me to many of my best friends and shaped me into the person I am today. All of those friendships would not have been possible if not for sports. 




Sports really do keep me sane throughout how chaotic my life can become. Navigating high school can be tough, and having high standards for yourself can only make things harder. Without the help of sports, I don't know if I would have gotten through my freshman year as seamlessly as I did. I am so thankful to sports for not only giving me an outlet to pour all my stress into but for introducing me to so many people who have changed my life for the better.