This is the new normal, so people say. None of this that is occurring is ‘normal’. Looking into the future from a seniors perspective can be frightening. I know from my personal experience that being a senior and being in sports, I want to have a normal senior year especially for my sport. I have been in track and field for four years now and I’m going to a college that is a D1 school and is very competitive with sports, just like any division one athletics program. Not having a track and field season towards the end of last year, hurt how my running times may look to coaches at colleges. If there is no season this year, there’s no way of me proving to them that I am someone who would make a great D1 athlete at their school.

 In college, academics are very important but going to a division one athletic school is also dedicating a lot of time to the sport someone goes for. I have trained three or more days a week for the last four years to be able to be the best of the best at what I want to go to college to be and to leave a mark on the world. Not being able to have a spring track season this year would make myself and others very disappointed. To me, there is no reason why there won’t and can’t be sports in the spring. Even looking past high school sports and college sports, and looking at professional athletes such as the NBA and the MLB, there is a lot to dislike about what’s happening with not being able to go watch games normally. When the virus first broke out all of the seasons were cancelled but further down the road, things have started opening back up slowly. The players were enthusiastic about being able to play again, but there aren’t any spectators so that the players aren’t at risk of getting sick. As spectators are slowly becoming able to spectate at games, it’s changing people’s lives.

 From my point of view it’s easier to talk about high school sports and college sports. I need to have a senior track and field season so that I can prove to myself and colleges that I should be the one they want to run at their school. I’m always working hard and striving to become the best athlete that I can be. I am also working hard with school so that my grades also reflect on how I could be a good addition to a college I apply to. The one struggle that hurt myself as an athlete was when COVID first became a struggle, it was difficult when I couldn’t train at the building I usually train at. As the virus became more of a common situation, athletes including myself, got to begin training again. 

One other big major situation that’s affecting athletes is if they get COVID it can affect their heart. If a top notch athlete has a heart problem, they will most likely not perform the same and if they heal, it will take time to be recovered and feeling normal again. A division one athlete needs the proper training, sleep, diet and having a good immune system. Having a healthy immune system comes from having the correct amount of sleep and healthy diet. It also has to do with building up an immune to viruses and being around people to build up the immune. If people are never around other people, there’s not a way to build a stronger immune system to prevent worse cases in the future. All in all, there are a lot of bad views and thoughts when it comes to sports due to the pandemic. It is impacting and affecting many athletes’ lives and how the present or the future may work out for their own lives.