Spring is here, time for some major life decisions

Kenzie Jones

April 22, 2015

Tim Castaneda, Sports Writer
Reading Time: 2 minutes

What it’s like to be picking the school you will compete for

Kenzie Jones | Sports Editor | @KenzieScribbler

As the semester comes to a close most of us students are either worried about graduation or excited that soon we won’t have to do anything for school for the next four months. The tendency is to forget what it was like this time of year back in high school.

With the UVU calendar set up this year, we actually will be finishing graduation and convocation on the same day that high school seniors everywhere in the nation will be picking what college they will be attending in the fall. I’m talking about May 1st.

It’s the day that everyone wears memorabilia of their future school and shows off a little. For a student athlete this day is a huge deal, because you are not only pick where you will be getting an education for the next four years but you are picking the team you will be playing for as well. Speaking as an athlete, your team is your family. Picking your family for the next four years, that’s a big decision to make.

Sure, every sport is different. The NLI (National Letter of Intent) has different dates for some sports. Basketball had to pick in November, football was at the beginning of this month, but all other sports the final decision is May 1st. Although you do have the option to change your mind up until August, but most people don’t do that because it gives you a bit of a bad name.

For myself, I knew exactly where I was going to go swim three months before my dead line. I went and visited the school and love the campus, the professors, and most importantly I got along with the team. Then about three weeks before my dead line I started talking to an other coach. They had me convinced that I was destined to go to this other school.

I was lucky enough that my aunt gave me an early graduation present and sent me to go visit this other school that I thought I was going to love. Within the first five minutes at this other school I knew that I would hate every moment I was trapped there. The trip made my decision for me and come the first of May I stuck with my original choice.

There are plenty of athletes out there like me, who, much like the majority of high school aged children, think they know everything but in all actuality are changing their mind every five minutes. I’m 22 years old and still think I know everything, but don’t know what I’m doing with my life.

Congratulations to all those, student athletes and plain students, who figured things out right before their first graduation and now mostly have things figured out for their next.