Purple Haze
The benefits of athletics
By Lauren Bagian

Sept. 24, 2009

I had stepped away from sports when I entered high school, living in the music department for the last 3 years. It wasn’t until I started looking at colleges that I started to give sports another thought. Colleges want “well-rounded” individuals, and good grades + extra-curricular activities + sports = a well-rounded student, right?

Tennis seemed like the most obvious choice for me; it’s low key and (the main reason it was so appealing) there are no team cuts. I was guaranteed a uniform, so why not? I had no idea how much I would end up loving tennis and everything about sports again.

There is definitely something about running around all afternoon with my teammates, exhausting ourselves in the hot sun and then going home feeling tired and accomplished that makes the extra time and effort that I need to put in completely worth it. It’s the feeling that I now see that all athletes must get; pride in themselves and their team for what they’ve achieved and improved.

That feeling should be experienced by everyone, if not in high school, then at some point in their lives. It is that sense of pride that tells you that you deserve better, you can accomplish more. It drives you on and pushes you forward. I never thought I would play a sport again; I didn’t think I had the time or I wasn’t athletic enough. But I see now that neither of those things really matter. For the small price of time that I put in, I got so much more out of tennis than I expected. I regained my drive.