76 Commuting and Athletics

 For our final project for this class we chose to observe the advantages and disadvantages as a commuter and an athlete at the University of Pikeville. We interviewed several people and asked them various questions pertaining to this topic. We feel that incoming freshman should know the hardships of college before they begin their journey in college. Some of the questions were; What are some advantages of being a commuter and some disadvantages of being a commuter? What are some advantages and disadvantages of being an athlete? Answers to the questions being mostly along the same lines. For example, an advantage of commuting and not living on campus is that you know the city more and are able to do things more freely. A disadvantage of this being that you miss out on certain on-campus events and things going on the University due to not being there. Secondly, students have to spend extra money on gas in order to get back and forth from classes. An advantage of being an athlete, as we observed, was that students are able to participate in sports and activities that they are passionate about and this also allows another opportunity for students to receive funding for their time at the University. Also, athletes support the University in their activities. A disadvantage of being an athlete that we observed was a certain lack of freedom that students have. Having to check into classes, always having to be up and ready for practice also takes a toll on students along with having to attend classes regularly.

We interviewed an athlete to get his perspective on going to college. We asked the athlete a few different questions about what it’s like to go to college and play sports and also be a student. The first question we asked him was, “What are your biggest obstacles being a student athlete?”. He said, “The biggest obstacles for me would have to be time management and keeping my priorities straight.”. I asked him to expand on this. He talked about how time management is very difficult. He said he usually has weightlifting in the morning, classes during the day, the practice later at night. A lot of the time he said he would get finished with practice and want to play video games and hangout with his friends, but he had to do homework instead. Being a student athlete requires time away from being a normal student and it makes it more difficult to be a college student. This also ties together with keeping his priorities straight. He wants to play video games and socialize with his friends after practice, but he knows it’s more important to get his homework done first. “Being a student athlete may make it more difficult, but it’s so worth it”, he said.

In conclusion being a student athlete and a commuter are both obstacles to make your life harder. If it’s too hard, sometimes you have to decide whether or not it’s worth it. As a student athlete, you have to juggle sports and classes. It’s especially hard to be in season and going to class because you would have to possibly miss whole entire days of class for an away game or the end of the year tournament. It’s also difficult to be a commuter and go to college. As a commuter you spend a lot of money on gas and miss out on different school activities. Sometimes you just have to determine whether or not it’s worth it to go to school. Maybe it’s better to live on campus. Some may think it’s better to go to college and not play sports so there is more time to focus on school. Going to college is a big decision to make for a young man or woman. Once you’re in college, you have to give it your all and join the grind, it won’t be easy, but it’s possible for everyone if you want it bad enough.