Executive Opinion Editor
Marley Brennan
Finding hobbies when you are a kid is pretty easy. We’ve all been through it; our parents sign us up for a bunch of different sports, you find the few or one you really like, and boom: your social life and weekly schedule is handed to you. You have built-in friends, your parents have new friends, and you now have an activity to keep you busy and in shape. These were simpler times.
When I was younger, I played basketball, softball, tennis, soccer, and I swam. Out of all of these sports, soccer stuck with me the most. And so, the soccer chronicles began. I joined my first AYSO team at 5, my first club team around 8, and my first high school team around 14. Looking back, there is such a difference in the way I felt playing my sport, my attitude about effort and the level of motivation I had from when I was first starting, to when I was clearly burning out. After 12 years of practicing two to three times a week, games and away tournaments on the weekends, and not a huge social life apart from my teammates, I reached my limit.
The relationship between sports and intrinsic motivation vary from person to person. The most obvious example of this is professional athletes. The sheer passion and drive that professionals have for their respective sport is so inspiring. The fact that they can still pull love out of repeating the same practices, improving, giving their time, mental effort, thoughts and life to the sport is incredible.
But for most people, this is not the case. The correlation between one’s commitment to their sport and burnout is something that many struggle with, athletes and high school students alike.
My mom did not raise me to be a quitter. In fact, she tried to encourage me to keep playing for a year or two when the phrase “quitting” began to come up in conversation more frequently. Finally, my parents sat me down one day and saw that my mind was made up. And suddenly, I felt embarrassed and reluctant. I had gotten what I wanted, hadn’t I? The permission to finally quit what was once my favorite activity now caused me guilt and hesitation. The pressure that we face when it comes to putting our full effort into everything we do makes the possibility of quitting daunting and confusing.
This intense stigma around the idea of quitting your sport, whether or not you are “good” or “bad” at it, is very damaging. When I quit soccer, I worried that people would think I was lazy. In reality, no one even noticed or cared that I quit because I did it for me. Personally, the once-positive environment that soccer represented in my life became toxic. Joining the soccer team in high school really affected my mental health and made me feel bad about myself. It wasn’t a welcoming environment, and it was super competitive. It didn’t serve me any purpose anymore because I knew for a fact I wasn’t planning on playing in college, let alone taking soccer on as a career.
I am not telling anyone to quit their sport. Rather, I aim to highlight the hidden benefits of following what your heart is telling you. I knew I wanted to love running for the rest of my life and forcing myself to do it everyday was not going to get me there. Mentally, I am now in the best possible place because I am able to workout according to my leisure and according to what I need.
Leave a Reply