I am 16 years old athlete in high school and I am on the Girls Varsity Soccer team. It is fun making memories throughout high school that I will never forget. But, its also a lot of pressure. You are expected to keep your grades up, eat healthy, sleep a minimum of 8 hours, and still do extra workouts. Also, I’m a human being so I need to have my family time and in all just me time. I really do try to do activities by myself like go on long distance runs, go train on my own, but it does get overwhelming. Being an athlete is hard these days, talent alone won’t get you anywhere. There are so many people that have “talent” so you don’t stand out, its too common. I am a junior this year and I want to go pro, that is my long term goal. I want to represent the USA or Mexico in the world cup and the Olympics but there are so many people who have the same goals who also have talent and drive and may even be better than you. So it begins to become difficult to find different ways to differentiate yourself from others. Everyone is fighting for that scholarship you want or for your spot in the starting line up. So yes as you can tell its hard being an athlete in today’s society.