The stress of being a high school student can at times be unbearable when you’re not only a student, but also a student-athlete. Being both at once is hard because you have to get good grades to play in your sports. Not only is it hard to be a student-athlete and get good grades, but it is also hard for my best friend.

Her parents are always busy and can’t make it to any of her events. Her mom doesn’t know how to drive so she stays home cleaning all day and taking care of her younger siblings, her dad is always working late so he can’t make it either. Her family members are always busy and no one from her family supports her. Sometimes her sister that lives in Chicago comes in and supports her in cross country but she’s also busy.

My friends and I support her as well because we’re really close and she’s a great student and athlete. Even though band and cross country is really hard we always support her in her decisions. Every week she goes to cross country practice and every Monday we have to go to band practice and that ends around 7:30. School, on the other hand, is just starting so it’s getting more difficult.

When she gets home she has to clean and get everything ready for the next day. This is what she’s doing every day, going to school, cross country practice and band is really stressful because there’s a lot of commitment you have to do and get better at. She never fails at what she does. She really loves doing the events she’s in because she can spend more time with her friends instead of being home and doing nothing. Sometimes, she makes mistakes like not running the best or not getting the correct notes out in band but she always learns from them and tries to improve. She has friends that help out a lot and always has her back no matter what.

Most of the time our friends want to hang out but sometimes she doesn’t have a ride to get there and that’s where my friends and I come in and help so we can hangout and make memories together.

I really love helping her out because it makes me happy to see her happy. Even if I'm not delighted I always try to make her happy and making memories with her are the best. It’s sad that her parents couldn't make it to her events because they’re always busy but that’s okay because they’re are still helping her out. Today, September 28, 2019, we had a cross country meet and we got a new pr  (a new permanent record). We got twenty-three minutes for three miles and we were really happy because we dropped four minutes from our old time. We were glad that we did it together and that we never gave up because we know we can do anything. We have been struggling in cross country but we’re getting better because we both work hard and are happy to be where we’re at right now.