Hockey

I came to this University because of hockey. I love the game, I'm good at it, and it was on account of playing it well that I got a scholarship here.

Being a serious student-athlete, I practice hockey for a few hours a day and play hockey most weekends. Practicing and playing takes up lots of my time, but I still find a way to get my schoolwork done during the season.

Yet when hockey finishes, I can't keep up with my school work. It is actually harder to get everything done. Why is that, you ask? Simply because I have more time on my hands. I don't have practice. I don't have games. So why don't I get everything accomplished? Here are my best answers:

(1) When hockey is in season, you're always working against the clock; if work doesn't get done now, there's no way that it can be finished in time to get handed in. When there aren't rigid deadlines, you always feel you can put it off. You think "oh, I'll have plenty of time to do this later." But then before you know it, it's late at night, your day has been wasted and it is too late to do anything about it. Does that make sense? Thought not. But it's the way things often go for me and many of my teammates. When I have hockey, I will do more during the day, I will organize my time better and I will get better grades.

(2) People come by and ask me to come to a party or a pub. Even though I intended to stay in and do the work, I say yes anyways. Then it goes downhill as in (1). But if I have hockey, I can’t say yes. Or I will suffer the consequences.

(3) During hockey season, you know you have to be focused, organized, disciplined, controlled. And you can be. You know for sure that there's no time for things that aren't absolutely essential and urgent. You can plan time to go out and have fun, but it has to be planned. It's a frame of mind you're in, and it governs your entire life.

Actually, now that I'm considering what I just thought were three different things, are really just one, but with three ways of looking at it. There ought to be a way to just move back and forth from the relaxed, hang-out-with-friends mode, to the disciplined, task-directed mode. Maybe some people can do that. But for me and most of my teammates, we can't. I guess the moral of the story is, time management is essential, and hockey forces me to do it, but without activities governing my time, I don't have a clue.