We know managing school and sport, as well as family, friends and a job can be hard at times. We feel for you as we have all been through this same stress so today, we interviewed NSR golf athlete, Drew Hiskins (VIC) who has been through these struggles too. Drew explains how he handled himself and his stress load at the time and we thought it was worth sharing.
You must know, what made it even more difficult for Drew was that he grew up in a small town, so to get anywhere, he had to travel at least half an hour by car. So you can imagine his bus trips to school weren’t too fun.
When I was in year 12, I had to prioritise, so I knew a few things in my life had to take a bit of a back step and unfortunately that meant my golf… and I love my golf. Okay, so I didn’t completely stop playing golf, I just had to make sure that I was on top of my homework, plus I wanted to keep my parents and teachers happy. At this stage I was practicing 1-2 times a week and playing club competitions roughly 1-2 times a fortnight because including the drive, a day at a competition was six hours long. I believe if you love something that much, even when you do take that step back, you will always come back to it. This was true for me.
My advice is, during your semesters don’t just float by, be on top of everything because it is easier to know when you have time for yourself and it is a lot less stressful. I live near the Murray so my friends and I would head down some weekends to go skiing and the last thing you want is to be stressing about how much time you have left to complete an assignment.
All in all, I recommend that students get on top of their work load to be able to have that free time to play their sport. I have been playing golf for 10 years now and I still love the game. Golf is the greatest escape and to get a stronger scholarship to play in the States, your education is vital. On top of that, make sure your work place knows where you stand in regards to your studies, that way they know when you will need time off to study.
We only live once so try to absorb as much advice from those who have experienced something similar. You want to be the best you can and achieve all you can in this life, so as they say, work hard- play hard!