During my college education, I have encountered plenty of obstacles concerning school, friendships, and athletics. However, the main obstacle I have encountered resides within athletics.

I was recruited to play Women’s Tennis at the University of Texas at Austin from 2020-2024. This experience was something I had dreamed of ever since I was a little girl playing junior tennis tournaments. However, little did I know, that the college athletics stories of the rigor and demands were fairly accurate.

Coming into college, I was a pre-medical student and therefore, took my academics very seriously. I had high aspirations for my future, and my coach was aware of my goals. Even though my coach knew I was athletically and academically motivated, this knowledge did not take any slack off of his expectations for me as a tennis player and a teammate. Oddly, I enjoyed this push factor. I do not enjoy when others take it easy on me; more so, I believe it makes me work harder and achieve more when I have high expectations, as my coach had for me.

On the other hand, this push factor became increasingly difficult when I was balancing the MCAT, the standardized test to get into medical school, with playing tennis in our NCAA season in the spring. We had the expectations of winning another NCAA championship because we had done so the past two years in Division One tennis. Thus, this expectation fueled me to achieve the same goal. However, I did not realize the rigor and intensity it would take for me to be successful in both respects while also balancing my mental health. This experience was a difficult obstacle for me, even though I am usually able to balance multiple tasks in my life.

In order to conquer this obstacle, I had to prioritize my future and work backward from there. More specifically, this notion meant that I had to realize that I would not be pursuing professional tennis in the long run. This decision was not easy for me to make as a 20-year-old who was not ready to give up the sport that had been a part of my life for the past 12 years. However, it was a necessary and important realization to come to terms with in order for me to move forward with my goals. Once I had realized that tennis was not a part of my future goals, my plan became clear for this spring season. The decision involved speaking to my coach and informing him that my academics took precedence over my tennis career this spring.

It is a very hard fact to come to terms with and an even harder fact to verbalize to a coach. However, I realized this fact was one I had to mention in order to keep my future goals in line. I had been honest with myself and my coach, verbalized my goals, and my path for the future was a straight shot from here. Although I was scared as to how my coach would react, he was very understanding. Therefore, my obstacle had disappeared. Overall, I have learned it is most important to weigh one’s self-goals, and second most important to verbalize those goals and be honest with those who are most important to oneself.