Jessica Esteban

     Jessie Esteban immediately warmed with excitement as her enthusiastic mom handed her a large envelope. Her eyes quickly shot from her moms smile to the University of Oregon stamp on the top left of the package. Jessie knew exactly what was inside. She had been in back and forth communication with the coach of the Varsity girl’s lacrosse team at the University. Oregon was a team and a school that Jessie had her eye set on throughout her high school lacrosse career. She had finally met her goal of playing D1 collegiate lacrosse but she had no idea what was to come.

Jessie saw a very idealized life style of a college athlete as many students around campus do. With tutors available for classes and all the Nike swag you can imagine, varsity athletes appear to have their lives made around the Oregon campus.

     However a daily schedule for Jessie, a human physiology major, was anything but appealing. Every morning Jessie’s alarm would ring in her Barnhart dorm at exactly 5:00am. This gave her just enough time to choke down some breakfast while hopping into many different layers of clothes to withstand the cold Oregon mornings. The freshman girls gathered at their bikes and began their ride to the locker room, located next to Autzen Stadium. Practice for Jessie was a constant battle of forcing her body to perform accurately and consistently on the dark, wet, and numbingly cold field. Under the rare circumstance it was not raining or sleeting, her feet would still go numb from the dew on the grass.

     The sun would rise towards the end of practice and the team would head in to the locker room to warm up, shower, and get ready for the day. Unfortunately, Jessie had class directly after practice. She had to hop back on her bike and race directly to her chemistry lecture. Free time in her daily life quickly became nonexistent. Lunch was almost always on the go and dinner was eaten at 4:30, the opening time for dinner service at the Barnhart cafeteria. This left a few hours for homework before bed at 9 o’clock.

     Two and a half years of this schedule took a toll on Jessie and she decided to leave the team after winter break of her Junior year. Lacrosse had consumed her life. She was not happy playing, her grades were suffering, and she felt like she was missing out on the normal college experience. Quitting though, meant leaving her team and all of her best friends. She didn’t know who she would hang out with while the team was traveling or what she would do in her spare time.

     Quitting however, turned out to be a positively life changing decision. Jessie was now able to focus more on school, work and her other hobbies. She is currently a senior studying International Business and the absence of lacrosse has already led her a study abroad opportunity in Spain and a volunteering gig in Thailand working on a conservation site.