Preparing for Post-Grad Life

For a good chunk of my life, I've identified as a runner. It's not what I've done but it's who I've become; I am a runner. And as long as I've been a student and a runner, I was...wait for it...a student athlete. For 8 years of my life that was how I was classified. Going with the old school stereotypes, I am considered a jock. 

I graduate from college in May and for the first time in my life, I won't be a student and I won't be an athlete, two very critical parts of my current identity. Although I've known that inevitable day will come, as it draws closer I can't help but get anxious thinking about being stripped of my identity. An article on ESPN states that of the roughly 460,000 athletes in the NCAA, fewer than 2 percent will go pro. "The other 98 percent are left to their own devices to figure out what is next, which can be a daunting reality for athletes who have spent their entire lives operating within a very regimented schedule dedicated to their sport." 

Daunting it is. After years of saying, "I'm a runner", "'I'm an athlete", and placing my sport and my schoolwork on the top of my priorities, that will all shift come May. Of course I will continue to run, but it will be at my own leisure. While in school I was able to miss class for athletics, that will not be the case at a big girl job where I'll just say to my boss, "Hey sorry can't make into work Friday, I have a race." 

It may sound like I'm being whiny, and I just need to suck it up and deal with being a normal person. But it's not the same as throwing away an article of clothing because of a hole or a stain. It's closing a very important, detailed chapter of my life that I put all my time and energy into for 8 years. So, as much as I'd love to go on to be a part of that 2 percent and become a professional runner, instead I'll enjoy my last few months of being Kayla, the student athlete. I'm not quite ready to meet normal adult Kayla yet.