A letter to the former high school athlete who stopped training

Dear friend,

Don’t stop!

I always say that my favorite part of going to the gym is leaving the gym. The work I put it in is tough but the reward is always worth it. But just because you are not training for a sport anymore does not mean that you could push your health to the side.

As more of my friends are becoming seniors and getting ready to graduate, I’ve noticed them reflect about their college experiences. One of their biggest regrets is that they wished they were more in shape. They reminisce to high school and preach about how that in terms of health, those were their “glory days.”

You definitely don’t want to be that person.

Most of the excuses they give are “I had too much work,” “I didn’t have enough time” or “I didn’t have any healthy food.”

There is always a way to make excuses, but those excuses are not helping you become the person you want to be. When my mom wasn’t there to cook chicken parmesan for me my freshman year, I would walk a mile to the grocery store to pick up fresh food then climb up the infamous Lehigh mountain all the way back to my residence hall. People definitely looked at me funny with bags of pasta, chicken, milk and eggs — but I didn’t care. At least twice a week I went down eight flights of stairs and cooked. I can assure you there were plenty of messes in the kitchen. The cops came a few times because I burnt something in the oven and the food didn’t taste anything like my mom’s cooking, but I received the nutrition I needed to work out. Thus I felt two steps ahead of everybody.

It’s funny but in this whole conquest of getting the best GPA, internship or whatever thing college students are trained to believe is more important than their health, they lose sight of what is important. In reality, your health should be the most important thing in your life. The way I look at it, a healthy person can always make money. Nevertheless it is your responsibility to make sure you are staying on course, since your high school coach isn’t going to make you do laps around the track anymore.

In college, and for anything you want in life, self-motivation is key. This might mean waking up earlier (before classes or work) and making sure you get to the gym or to the park or to the beach if that’s what is available to you. You may not be where you were in high school, but every day should be taken as a new opportunity to get there.

It is hard to stay motivated when you don’t have a specific sport you are training for; the hardest part of getting back into it is to figure out why you are getting back into the gym. Some people wants abs, some people wants biceps, some people want ass. Personally, I set the challenge of trying to dunk. Whatever the reason is, once you focus yourself mentally, putting in the actual work becomes easy.

Enjoy relearning how to love that great feeling of purpose you get from leaving the gym. I promise, it’s worth it.

Sincerely,

The former high school athlete who fell in love with the training process all over again.