The Unfortunate Truth of a College Athlete

Think back 10, 20, or however many years it was since you were a kid, and just try to remember where you saw yourself at this age. Some wanted to be doctors, others desired to be a police officer, or a fireman, but many young boys aspire to be professional athletes, just like I wanted. But, the unfortunate truth is...we do not all get there. This does not make us failures, though, right? Absolutely not. As kids we aspire to be the next big thing in whatever caught our attention in the moment, and for me, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. Now my goal is still technically attainable, but I am also realistic and I know my life will probably go on another path. But I am here today to write about where I am now, a struggling college athlete that cannot get a job, but needs money to get where I really want to be.

I am home for summer break, working out every single day, aspiring to be the pitcher that I know I could be, but I can hardly afford to pay for my own food that I need to keep going. I do live with my mother, but she is on a diet where packages of her food comes in, thus, she does not have to go to the grocery store to buy food for anyone. I manage with some good ole' peanut butter and jellies, but that's about all I really have at home. I want to take my girlfriend out on dates because I was raised to treat my woman with utmost respect and I want to give her whatever she desires, but I simply cannot. But I know what some of you are thinking, "Why can't you just get a job?"

That brings me to why I am here and writing this story. My grandparents got me tickets to Arizona to visit them this summer for two weeks, so that's two weeks I won't be here. My girlfriend's father is taking her brother and us to St. Louis for her birthday, and he is paying for us. That is another week I am gone. My father lives in Nashville, and sister lives in Chattanooga, and I am going to take a trip to see both of them at once, which is another week gone. That's four weeks that I will be out of town for the summer, and that is assuming I do not stay at my dads for longer. So, those of you wondering why I do not just get a job, let me ask you this. Would you hire a kid that comes to you and says, "I want a job, but I will be gone for four weeks in the next two months, and I am going back to college at the beginning of August."? I cannot understand why anyone would.

I have been a shopper for Instacart since 2020, and during the pandemic, it was a decent job that I could do pretty much whenever I wanted, but now that the pandemic has calmed down, Instacart has hardly been showing any orders. I searched for other options, such as TaskRabbit, which for those of you that do not know what that is, I basically am a handyman for people that hire me through the app. It pays okay, but you never know when you will get hired, and it is only a couple times a month, if any. That leads me to where I am today, searching the internet for part-time jobs I could do from home, and I have seen anything from being a virtual assistant, to selling my poop. I have searched everywhere, and Vocal is one of the first things I have found where I can write without paying a huge fee, just trying to make a buck. I do not know if this will even work, but a guy can dream.

My final point and the reason for the title of this story is this: being a college athlete is a whole lot harder than the school and the sport. The lack of time to have a job and make money for the food that we need to eat in order to replenish the energy we burned off, it all just adds up. It is beyond stressful for anyone in my situation, and all I am hoping for is this to put my name out there as I continue to search the internet for ways to make money.