This past fall I went through a huge transition in my life as I began college at St. Francis University. Transitioning to the life of a college student is difficult by itself, and it is made even more difficult when college athletics is added into the equation. I love running on my school's cross country and track teams, but adjusting to the new atmosphere was by no means easy. Each year, thousands of other student athletes move on to compete in cross country and track and field at the collegiate level. Hopefully my advice can help some of them ease into this transition period! 


     One of the biggest adjustments for me was definitely moving into a dorm room. At first, the white concrete walls and drab furniture made it seem less than homely. Hanging up some of my favorite pictures from home and adding my own personal touch to the room helped make the room more comfortable to live in. During college, your small ten foot by ten foot dorm room is the only area that you can call your own, so you will want to make sure that it is a place you enjoy being. 


      If you are used to sleeping in quiet solitude in the comfort of your own room, you're going to have to adjust. Even if your room mate is being quiet at night (more on that later), people are on all different kinds of schedules and someone will probably be making a lot of noise in the hallways at all hours of the day. You can't control the behavior of everyone else, so you're going to have to adjust. Earlier this month, I had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. to leave for a Saturday track meet. I made sure to get to bed early so I had energy to run, but this obviously was not the plan for the rest of my dorm building, as a dance was taking place that was over at 2 o'clock in the morning. Talk about bad luck for me! As I was getting ready for bed, girls in the dorms around me were loudly primping and getting excited for the dance. Hours later, they returned to their dorm rooms, all of them rowdy and some of them drunk and stumbling down the hall. I couldn't control the behavior of others, so I had to remember to keep calm and simply try to block out the noise. 


     Whenever I was being recruited by coaches, a lot of them talked about choosing a room mate. Runners I met from the college teams I was considering also stressed the importance of having a good relationship with your roomate. Almost all of the coaches and athletes had strong opinions on the matter, although many of their opinions differed dramatically. Some of the coaches recommended to all of their athletes that they room with a non-athlete. I remember one coach telling me that I would be spending a huge amount of time at practice and meets with my teammates, so it was important to make friends outside of the team, and rooming with a non-runner would help with that. Others  reccomended rooming with an athlete who did a different sport because it would help me to make a different group of friends, but my room mate would also be able to sympathize with my busy schedule. Some other coaches recommended requesting to live with another runner from the team, as I would have more in common with them than anyone else on campus.

     I decided to live with a non-athlete, and through a long chain of events that I will not attempt to describe right now, I ended up living in a tiny triple dorm with two girls I went to high school with. Although I really liked the girls as individuals, I regret my decision to live with them. As a college runner, sleep is one of your most valuable assets. Living with two other people made it almost IMPOSSIBLE to go to sleep at a decent hour. My room mates weren't athletes, so they did not understand how important sleep was to me as a runner. They would waste time all throughout the day, and remember at 11:30 p.m. that they had a project to do. They would leave the lights on until 1 or 2 in the morning, typing away on their computer and talking to each other, or worse, skyping friends at home on the internet for hours at a time. This resulted in a cranky Kylie when I had to wake up for 6:30 a.m. practices. Fortunately, at the beginning of the second semester I was able to move in with another runner on my team. So far, this arrangement has been significantly better than my dorm situation at the beginning of the year. We both understand the importance of getting enough sleep, and there are no distractions keeping me awake at night. I don't find myself tiptoeing around the room at the crack of dawn, stubbing toes off of my desk and tripping over my shoes anymore, because we both have to wake up at the same time for practice. 


     Dorm room living arrangements are a personal decision for each student, but as a college runner, I have found living with a teammate to be a lot more beneficial to my performances. One thing to always keep in mind is that most colleges are open to room changes, so if a student's first living arrangement does not work out they almost always have the option of switching rooms next semester. So student-athletes should think hard about where they want to live, without letting it become another source of stress!


Dorm life is just one transition you will undergo while adjusting to college, so I will continue to blog about the various other adjustments I have undergone as a  freshman runner. For now, I am going to go attempt to get some more homework done before my last afternoon class and a rough track workout. 


Have a good day!
Kylie