A Generation of Athletes is Grieving...

...and they need our support.
 
While my main interaction with students is through athletics, and my heart hurts for the necessary cancelations this Spring, students across the nation are all grieving something they have lost in the last few weeks. Whether it’s a Spring sports season, an academic celebratory ceremony, a canceled internship, the list goes on and on. The students I have had the pleasure of interacting with over the past few weeks understand the magnitude of this situation, but that doesn’t make their hurt go away. Comments such as “there’s a pandemic, your season is the least of the concerns” or “It’ll just get rescheduled, stop freaking out about it.” are being posted everywhere. Some of the attacks I have seen on social media are actually insane.
 
We, as the adults in their lives, need to support and help guide them through this. Students are going from having little to no free time on their hands to suddenly having more time than they even know what to do with. The same panic and anxiety we are currently feeling? They are feeling tenfold. Not only are they now concerned about futuristic things like jobs, grad school, etc. they have to worry about all the other things that come along with a pandemic. A ton of ideas on how to help support students and keep them on track for whatever their goals are have been flying around, and I wanted to compile a list of my favorites to share with you all!
 
1) Set a schedule, and stick to it - Still working on mine because we are up in the air a bit at work, but right now I am starting to schedule out my day to day to be sure I am getting up in the morning and getting productive!
 
2) Set long term and short term goals - weekly goals that help your achieve long term goals will absolutely help in getting through down times like this! For example, one of my weekly goals is to create at least two blogs and two videos per week so I have plenty to share even after softball takes over my life again!
 
3) Stay in contact with your friends/teammates - Our athletic department gets together for lunch once a week, and we are looking at doing Zoom lunches to stay connected! It’s possible, we just need to get creative.
 
4) Stay Positive - I am HORRIBLE at this…100% a glass half empty person. One of our players introduced me to the app “Motivate”, it sends notifications with quotes to my phone multiple times a day. I have also started journaling again which has helped a ton!
 
5) Keep up on your exercise/nutrition habits - Once we don’t have a schedule it’s easy to fall into unhealthy habits. I’ve had one weekend off and literally all I’ve done is eat because I’m bored - definitely not a sustainable plan. Getting back on track to normal nutrition and exercise habits will help keep us all sane!
 
6) Figure out who you are outside of your greatest passion - I learned this due to an injury and a surgery early in my playing career, it was one of the hardest things to come to terms with. Want to be a doctor? Get online, find webinars, and learn! Want to be a vet? Get to your local animal shelter and start volunteering (social distancing is for people, not puppies!). This is a great time to start reaching out to those who are top in the field you are studying - many of them are just as lost and bored as you are!