How Covid Impacts Me As An Athlete
Sports for me has been space where I don’t have to worry about the outside world. Its a space where I can channel my positive energy and negative energy and express both in a healthy and productive way. And most importantly, its space where I can both have fun and train my body and mind at the same time. For me, my athletic outlets have come in various forms: Soccer, Track & Field, Tennis, and even basketball once in a while. Through each sport I get to focus on developing certain strengths and addressing certain weaknesses. But most of all each sport allows me to be part of different communities and enjoy time with friends, teammates, family, etc.
All in all, sports for me is a way for me to invest in my own active engagement as well as sense of belonging within a community. And with me participating so heavily in sports for 6+ years, to have all of that come to a halt so suddenly has been more than just a change in lifestyle. For me personally its left me in a situation where both my mental and physical health have deterred significantly. For the first month and a half or so since Quarantine was made official in Boston, I tried to replace sports with running around my neighborhood and exercising at home. But the amount of physical, mental, and emotional stimulation that I received from doing those things was no where close to the amount I received from playing sports. And it especially didn’t help that I couldn’t do any of these sport replacement activities with teammates or friends. Thus my need for active engagement and belonging as a person were left unsatisfied and the more time that went by with quarantine, the more frustrated, angry, and depressed I became.
Well now, I after 6+ months of these experiences, my level of academic engagement, social engagement , and time management have all decreased extremely. And so its safe to say that Covid has really been my arch nemesis in more than just a immune system harming way. All I can do now is hope that a vaccine is made soon so that at some time next year, I can be free to play sports again and begin to recover from this quarantine.
