Speaker 1: Beyond the Megaphone is a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and the College Athletes Network. Hey everybody, this is Nathan
Speaker 1: and Cassidy. You are listening to Beyond the Megaphone on
Speaker 1: the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast that
Speaker 1: you never miss a new episode. This can easily be
Speaker 1: done via the I Heart Radio app. Also, you can
Speaker 1: find me on Instagram and Twitter at our Nathan Paris
Speaker 1: and you can find me on Instagram at casty with
Speaker 1: a double y SERNI I feel like I need to
Speaker 1: get Twitter. You should, I think I mean that way.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I think you should. I feel like
Speaker 1: casting tweeting is just like the opportunities there are endless.
Speaker 1: That's so scary. I'd make my Twitter private. I just
Speaker 1: like follow you on Twitter and just be like hey Nathan.
Speaker 1: It's just yeah, it's just one follower, one following and
Speaker 1: it's just me, hey, what's going on? And there like
Speaker 1: d m s, but it's like goes to your feed
Speaker 1: when I die. Make it public. Yeah. Um, Cassie, welcome
Speaker 1: to episode four. Welcome to episode four. Episode You're doing okay, um,
Speaker 1: pushing through yaw se going, it's going, it's going. It's going,
Speaker 1: it's it's happening. Sure, I'm upright, So that's a win. UM.
Speaker 1: So today we're gonna look at cheer and school. Okay,
Speaker 1: what that means the balancing act that involves, um, all
Speaker 1: the extra work and commitment that goes into trying to
Speaker 1: balance being a student athlete. UM. I think the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that we want to get across is that no
Speaker 1: one expects perfection right now. This is kind of the
Speaker 1: common thing that we've seen with the previous episode on
Speaker 1: mental Health featuring me out Walker. If you haven't listened
Speaker 1: to that, you should definitely listen to that. But shameless plug.
Speaker 1: So I think that. But yeah, the biggest thing is
Speaker 1: we just want to reiterate that since cheer is such
Speaker 1: a perfectionist sport, no one is looking for a perfection,
Speaker 1: you know, especially when you're getting into being a student athlete.
Speaker 1: They just want your best. And that's what we're gonna
Speaker 1: try and share with you guys to day and some
Speaker 1: tips and tricks on how we are always working to
Speaker 1: be the best versions of ourselves. UM. I think where
Speaker 1: I want to start is kind of what life looks
Speaker 1: like for those of you listening who haven't gotten to college.
Speaker 1: Yet just in general what college life looks like without um,
Speaker 1: you're collegiate cheerleading, right. So for me, obviously the first
Speaker 1: two years I was in the band, right, so that
Speaker 1: was more of a club. It wasn't a sport. There's
Speaker 1: no n C delayed sanctions on marching band yet, probably
Speaker 1: be that's okay, um, but um, yeah, So I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing is like time management is just so
Speaker 1: important and starting out early with things that like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I understand this, right, I don't understand this. I need
Speaker 1: to get help with that right now, right, Like there's
Speaker 1: no there's no waiting. You don't need to wait. You
Speaker 1: don't have to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about not understanding something,
Speaker 1: because if you knew everything, you wouldn't be here, right.
Speaker 1: That's the whole point of going to college, right, So
Speaker 1: go ask help, Go ask for help, Go figure out
Speaker 1: what you need to do, and do that early, um,
Speaker 1: because it's much easier to do that early than try
Speaker 1: and dig yourself out of a hole halfway through the semester.
Speaker 1: Personal experience in the sentence that was not that was
Speaker 1: not directed just that you. It happens to everybody. But
Speaker 1: the biggest thing is um, just trying to do that
Speaker 1: as early as possible so that you can come away
Speaker 1: with progress not perfection. Um. But yeah, I think for me,
Speaker 1: one of the hardest things was once I got to
Speaker 1: college was how it's so much more responsibility. Like these
Speaker 1: professors don't really care if you fail their class. They
Speaker 1: care a little bit, right, I'm not gonna just say
Speaker 1: that all professors, hope you know, are praying on people's downfalls,
Speaker 1: but no one's gonna sit there over your shoulder and
Speaker 1: make sure you do your homework right. Um. That might
Speaker 1: not have happened for you, for for you in high school,
Speaker 1: I know it did for me. Shout up, Mom and dad, UM,
Speaker 1: appreciate you'll never giving me a break in the best way.
Speaker 1: Uh no. But UM, so you know, once you get here,
Speaker 1: you're on your own. You know, you have your friends,
Speaker 1: you have your group, Um, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: responsibility then shifts to you. And I think that that's
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that you need to come to grips
Speaker 1: with early, um and be okay with because that's, you know,
Speaker 1: part of growing up. Um. I don't know when you
Speaker 1: first got to college, what did you see, Because when
Speaker 1: we joined the team, it was COVID. You're right, So
Speaker 1: for the most part, we didn't have a ton of
Speaker 1: responsibility for to er just because we couldn't really get together. So, like,
Speaker 1: what did you see as a difference between your high
Speaker 1: school workload versus your college workload? Um, A big difference
Speaker 1: I saw was like, there's not gonna be anyone there
Speaker 1: to punish you if you like do bad on something
Speaker 1: or if you get like a bad grade or whatever
Speaker 1: you turn in a sement, like, there's not gonna be
Speaker 1: anyone there to really like be like, um, what's this
Speaker 1: Because like in high school, my mom had access to
Speaker 1: like my grades, so anything when any time I got
Speaker 1: a bad grade or something like that, I always knew
Speaker 1: there was going to be like a repercussion for that.
Speaker 1: And then here I could mess up and like it's
Speaker 1: up to me to make the change to do better.
Speaker 1: And that was something that I definitely really struggled with
Speaker 1: because I need that like type of structure. But then
Speaker 1: it just kind of what, oh my gosh, I can't
Speaker 1: speak never Um, I don't even remember saying yes. Um.
Speaker 1: Like that was something that I really had to teach
Speaker 1: myself how to implement on my own instead of getting
Speaker 1: it from someone else, especially, I feel like at a
Speaker 1: big ten school, you know, there's so much to do, UM,
Speaker 1: and I love doing everything, and I think that it's
Speaker 1: structure is a big part of college just in general.
Speaker 1: And time management are like the key things that I
Speaker 1: had to learn on my own in order for me
Speaker 1: to be successful in school. I found routines really kind
Speaker 1: of saved my UM career in a sense, because like
Speaker 1: I knew that something had to change. Like when I
Speaker 1: first got here, academically was not where I needed to be. UM.
Speaker 1: I think I've probably failed three exams my first semester,
Speaker 1: you know, just like you're so used to the way
Speaker 1: life is in your first twelve years of education, where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh yeah, I'll take thirty minutes the night
Speaker 1: before to study for this exam and it'll be just
Speaker 1: like study guide. I'll be fine. And then you get
Speaker 1: here and you do that, and then you get you're like,
Speaker 1: oh that didn't work. UM. So you know, I think
Speaker 1: finding a routine that is now college equipped rather than
Speaker 1: just high school was something big for me, and also
Speaker 1: finding like, okay, here's my you know, two hours of
Speaker 1: recreational time, right, but here's my four five hours of
Speaker 1: work time throughout the day. Obviously I'm not gonna go
Speaker 1: four hours straight, but you have those breaks, you have
Speaker 1: those time for yourself to relax, um, and then just
Speaker 1: trying to replicate that every day and then when you
Speaker 1: find success, that how you know you're on the right track.
Speaker 1: And then for me that was like boom, there was
Speaker 1: my routine. I'm just gonna do that, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: Along with this topic, since we're talking about just the
Speaker 1: very vague details of college life, I think it's also
Speaker 1: important because I feel like people who are listening to
Speaker 1: this who are in high school are obviously probably thinking
Speaker 1: about cheer. Um. So I think one thing that I
Speaker 1: struggled with, like seeing the change of coming from high
Speaker 1: school and like high school cheer and all that stuff
Speaker 1: to college and cheer was like, I what I expected
Speaker 1: was not at all what it turned out to be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not at all. Like I don't know, I honestly don't
Speaker 1: even know what I expected. Like I really had no expectations.
Speaker 1: Like I I was under the impression that, well, obviously
Speaker 1: it's different for different programs, but I was under the
Speaker 1: impression that, you know, like I'm gonna be doing school
Speaker 1: and cheer and that's gonna be it. Like I thought
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have like any time to do anything other
Speaker 1: than school and cheer, and that would be like consuming
Speaker 1: my whole life. But as we've had like a full
Speaker 1: season and done pretty much at all. We've traveled, we've
Speaker 1: done football, basketball, all that fun stuff. Um, I think
Speaker 1: it's what I expected, was to just be super overwhelmed
Speaker 1: with everything and not. I didn't think going into college
Speaker 1: cheer and being in a student as well, that I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have like as much time as I actually do. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: So you almost like overestimated which you'd have to get
Speaker 1: done in a week. Yeah, I like didn't think i'd
Speaker 1: really have well, never mind, I was gonna say, I
Speaker 1: don't think. I didn't think i'd really have like any
Speaker 1: friends or anything. I was like, my friends are made
Speaker 1: to your team, do you have Oh? Okay, I say,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Yeah, I thought I was
Speaker 1: going to have, Like, well, well, that's a good point
Speaker 1: because the thing is, like you would think that the
Speaker 1: only time you get to see your teammates is at practice,
Speaker 1: right or when you're practicing outside of your official like
Speaker 1: a lot of time. Um, so that's a good point
Speaker 1: because I think I definitely see you guys more, even
Speaker 1: with grad school, still see you guys more outside of
Speaker 1: practice and games that I do. Honestly, I feel like
Speaker 1: we see each other more this year than we did
Speaker 1: last year. Yeah. Now we're all like close, which is
Speaker 1: super nice geographically. Um, but yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 1: the three years that I've been a part of the
Speaker 1: program is definitely more so seeing you guys just hanging out,
Speaker 1: spending time other rather than stunting or practicing and things
Speaker 1: like that, which I think is a good thing to
Speaker 1: point out, is because like, yes, you're gonna be busy
Speaker 1: at times. Yes, you're gonna have a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: to do. Yes you're gonna probably have like just enough
Speaker 1: time to get all your homework done in one day.
Speaker 1: And then you're like, oh wait, I have a three
Speaker 1: hour cheer practice as well tonight. How am I gonna
Speaker 1: do this? Those things happen, right, The most important thing
Speaker 1: is you do have time outside of those school in
Speaker 1: cheer to hang out, have fun, be with friends inside
Speaker 1: the program outside the program. Um yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's what I was trying to say. I don't know
Speaker 1: why my words aren't working right, now, but I was
Speaker 1: kind of reaching that point. It's fine. I was trying
Speaker 1: to like get across that I thought I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: like a social life, But in the end, it turns
Speaker 1: out it's gonna be your social life. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: social life. That's that's a good point. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: like you you think, like, oh my gosh, like all
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do is like work, Na, Like that's that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of cheer I think is because like at
Speaker 1: practice that kind of is a social hour. Yes you're
Speaker 1: working hard, Yes you're doing these things, you're taking it seriously,
Speaker 1: but you're with like the best people in the world,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't always feel like work, you know. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Um. Let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about undergrad versus grad school. Okay, just because now that
Speaker 1: I'm officially old and officially in grad school, UM, we
Speaker 1: can kind of you can kind of go back and
Speaker 1: forth on all that. UM take him through, like what
Speaker 1: you feel like undergrad looks like like your typical week.
Speaker 1: Typical week for me, UM on Mondays, I typically wake
Speaker 1: up around nine, I do some homework before my class, UM,
Speaker 1: go to class, and then actually, funny we were talking
Speaker 1: about social life. Me and my friend Maddie on the team.
Speaker 1: UM have a class in the same building, So we
Speaker 1: meet up after our eleven thirty and like, go get lunch,
Speaker 1: talk a little bit. Then we both go to our
Speaker 1: class at like one fun Fun, and then I go
Speaker 1: to So I have another class at one fifty, and
Speaker 1: then I have a three and then I'm done with
Speaker 1: my classes for the day. Typically I will either stunt
Speaker 1: or go see my friends. Either either one. I'll go
Speaker 1: to like the cheer house and just sit there until
Speaker 1: the cheer shout out to your house real quick, Okay,
Speaker 1: keep going, Um, but yeah, that's a Monday. Tuesday's very
Speaker 1: chill for me. I tried to do the bare minimum
Speaker 1: on Tuesdays because we have practice on Tuesdays. So I
Speaker 1: have an eight am fun uh bare minimum. I have
Speaker 1: an eight am and then after that, I usually at
Speaker 1: eleven will go work out. Um just a light will
Speaker 1: work out, get us break a sweat, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Yes, and then I will get lunch at
Speaker 1: the stadium. Usually there will be a few of the
Speaker 1: other people in the Truer team there, so I'll go
Speaker 1: see them, get some lunch, and then I have um
Speaker 1: P T at th so I do that, and then
Speaker 1: after two thirty I get back to my room. At
Speaker 1: like three, I relax. I listened to music. I will
Speaker 1: like watch a show. I typically try to not do
Speaker 1: any homework or any like really tough brain work on
Speaker 1: me because I know I'm gonna need to get into
Speaker 1: focus mode. And that's when I start to like be like, okay,
Speaker 1: I practice soon. I need to like get my head
Speaker 1: in the game. Come on, So I will start getting
Speaker 1: ready for practice at like five thirty. Go to practice
Speaker 1: in my day there, it's a great day. Wednesdays and
Speaker 1: Fridays are typically the same as Mondays, and my Tuesdays
Speaker 1: and Thursdays look alike sweet, awesome. So it sounds like
Speaker 1: most of the time three pm, you're like all right,
Speaker 1: at least for like an hour or so, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: check out. Yes, I need to relax. I need some
Speaker 1: me time. My brain stops working, yeah briefly for a second.
Speaker 1: So we just need a second for myself. You need
Speaker 1: um okay, grad school, it's not that different, I would say.
Speaker 1: I think it's just like the volume of work is different. Now. Granted,
Speaker 1: like I'm in an accelerated program. So this might be
Speaker 1: different than the average like grad program. UM. Typical grad
Speaker 1: programs are fifteen to twenty hours minus thirty four hours.
Speaker 1: So it's like there's a little bit of difference there. UM.
Speaker 1: But what is nice though, is going back to the
Speaker 1: routines that we were talking about. I have a perfect
Speaker 1: routine that is pretty much the same every day. UM.
Speaker 1: So eight am every morning, UM, getting up, going to
Speaker 1: class UM, and I'll have three classes a day UM
Speaker 1: so from eight to about two UM, we're in lectures
Speaker 1: UM hands on lecture style either one. UM. Getting a
Speaker 1: degree in information systems requires some of the hands on,
Speaker 1: more coding things like that. UM. But UM, same with you.
Speaker 1: I think in the afternoon early evening every day, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of like, okay, I'm checked out because yes, class
Speaker 1: ends at too, but most of the time you're there
Speaker 1: from about two to four or five every day to
Speaker 1: work on group projects. UM. So what's nice is I'm
Speaker 1: kind of treating it as like a nine to five,
Speaker 1: except it's like an eight to five. But um, So
Speaker 1: just thinking about trying to make every day as similar
Speaker 1: as possible for me has been really relaxing because then
Speaker 1: I know exactly like what's on my plate every day?
Speaker 1: Um So, yeah instead of at three most days around
Speaker 1: like five, I take that mental break, might take a nap,
Speaker 1: might dawn another podcast, you know, might stunt UM. Haven't
Speaker 1: been able to Stunted much this year, which is super sad,
Speaker 1: but it's okay, UM, you know, I'm just happy to
Speaker 1: be here for one extra year, right, um So. And
Speaker 1: in Friday's UH, we are actually in a lecture from
Speaker 1: eight am to five pm. Like those are the very
Speaker 1: hands on days, so we're doing a lot of like
Speaker 1: collaboration and things like that. So the biggest difference I
Speaker 1: think going through undergrad and now UM a good portion
Speaker 1: of the way through grad school is UM. It's just
Speaker 1: the volume of work is UM slightly increased to grad school,
Speaker 1: and that's just because of UM getting you in and
Speaker 1: out in one or two years. UM. And it's also
Speaker 1: much more like UM output oriented rather than like grades.
Speaker 1: It's like, if you can give us a good quality
Speaker 1: piece of work, I think you're gonna be okay. You
Speaker 1: know that that's kind of more hard. It's more professional
Speaker 1: sense rather than UM a's, b's and c's and things
Speaker 1: like that, so that it definitely helps me because I've
Speaker 1: always been so nervous about greates and things like that.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah it's fun. It's busy, but um it's
Speaker 1: worth it for sure. Well, I think with that, our
Speaker 1: next thing we're going to talk about is, um some
Speaker 1: interesting stories that we have dealing with school and it's amazing. Okay, sweet,
Speaker 1: super fun, super great. Um. You're listening to the Beyond
Speaker 1: the Megaphone podcast. I am Cassidy Serny and I'm Nathan
Speaker 1: and this is a College Athletes Network. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Beyond the Megaphone on the College Athletes Network. I'm Nathan
Speaker 1: and I'm Cassidy. Subscribe to our podcast that you never
Speaker 1: miss another episode. Okay, so let's talk about some of
Speaker 1: the craziest um balancing acts that we've gone through so
Speaker 1: far in our wonderful cheerleading careers. Give us, like a
Speaker 1: story where you've had to do just about every single
Speaker 1: thing under the sun in a span of twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: Um my, very like. The first thing that comes to
Speaker 1: my mind is on our way to the Big Ten Tournament.
Speaker 1: I don't remember which day it was. We went three
Speaker 1: times because we won twice, right, I think we went twice? Yes,
Speaker 1: we want twice because we're in the championship. So we
Speaker 1: drove to and from Indy three consecutive days, and I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure it was the second time we went. I
Speaker 1: had so much to do. I had so, so, so,
Speaker 1: so much to do. I brought literally everything in my bag.
Speaker 1: And You're like, we're we should keep our bags light
Speaker 1: for that because we're like moving around a lot of places.
Speaker 1: We don't have like a set spot that's like closed
Speaker 1: off to put our bags. So I just had like
Speaker 1: all of my essential things for school just out in
Speaker 1: where we're Oh, my god, Banker's Life, Baker's Life. I
Speaker 1: just said, actually there's a new name now, but I
Speaker 1: don't remember. The name is Baker's Life. The Pacers Arena
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis. I had everything laid out in the Pacers
Speaker 1: Arena Banker's Life, and I was on the bus. There's
Speaker 1: literally a picture of me sitting on the bus with
Speaker 1: my iPad like looking at my different like organic chemistry questions. Um, oh,
Speaker 1: that reminds me of m Was it organic as well?
Speaker 1: In the locker room, we were like halfway through basketball season.
Speaker 1: This is like right before Thanksgiving, very probably where you
Speaker 1: coming from halftime and everybody's like, you know, recaping or
Speaker 1: getting ready for the stuff. And I just see Castie
Speaker 1: in the corner, just like bawled up, and she's just
Speaker 1: like flipping through no cards and I'm like, hey, man, um,
Speaker 1: we only have like eight minutes. She's like, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: but I gotta I gotta figure this test. Like I'm sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so funny. It's one of my favorite pictures. So funny.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who that picture was taken until like
Speaker 1: after the game, and the level of focus is just
Speaker 1: like it looks like you're actually taking the ex in
Speaker 1: that moment. So awesome. But yeah, I had I had
Speaker 1: so it was around like midterms ish something like that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I had an exam in Spanish, I
Speaker 1: had an upcoming quiz or exam in OReGO, and I
Speaker 1: also had a CALC exam like in that same time span,
Speaker 1: and it obviously was crunch time because I felt the
Speaker 1: need to bring it to Big ten take your entire
Speaker 1: everything right yeah, um, but on the bus right there,
Speaker 1: I literally was like taking a Spanish exam like full
Speaker 1: on on the bus. Dude. Actually, no, here's here's what happened.
Speaker 1: I had to reschedule it because I was missing that
Speaker 1: class for the tournament and I had to reschedule it.
Speaker 1: So when literally I had we got back at like
Speaker 1: a certain time. I had my exam. It in a
Speaker 1: half hour on zoom. It was proper. Yeah. So I'm
Speaker 1: like crunch time, hearts racing, palm sweating. I need to
Speaker 1: get this done. So that's my main priority. I got
Speaker 1: it done. Next priority, I have an upcoming Oorgle quiz. Yay,
Speaker 1: so I'm doing my orgo thing. I also have CALC
Speaker 1: Why did I do that to myself? Well? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: for context, this tournament is like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Speaker 1: Literally it's like in the middle of the week and
Speaker 1: it's like mid day. I think our first game at
Speaker 1: the turn it was like two pm. Yeah yeah, so,
Speaker 1: you know, definitely the highlight of balancing acts perfect example
Speaker 1: of because March Madness is during spring break for the
Speaker 1: most part, like unless you make I think it's after
Speaker 1: the Sweet Sixteen is back during the semester, so well,
Speaker 1: you know, probably get to experience that this year because
Speaker 1: i U basketball is insane. But that's a whole different story. Um.
Speaker 1: I think for me, the craziest was definitely this year
Speaker 1: so far, um, because just there's just no stopping in
Speaker 1: grad school. It's just boom boom boom boom um. So
Speaker 1: I think the funniest one for me was I was
Speaker 1: I woke up at six am on a Tuesday morning
Speaker 1: because I had to take a quiz before it was
Speaker 1: due at eight am, um and opens at seven am,
Speaker 1: so you're like, actually supposed it before the morning session,
Speaker 1: which is super fun um, So getting up. Then I
Speaker 1: think we had one exam during a lecture um later
Speaker 1: on that day, and then after that we had a
Speaker 1: presentation do Wednesday, and I was doing at eight am. UM.
Speaker 1: So I met with my team from two pm till
Speaker 1: about five thirty on Tuesday, and we had just put
Speaker 1: our finishing touches on the power Point slide deck. Everything
Speaker 1: was looking good and I was like, all right, um,
Speaker 1: this looks awesome. I'm gonna go ahead and yeah, so
Speaker 1: I rushed out of Kelly Uh to my car and
Speaker 1: I grab a Jimmy John sandwich on the way of course,
Speaker 1: um and show up at practice in my business casual
Speaker 1: around Oh. I actually remember, so I was like I
Speaker 1: came over you and I was like, on Nathan, Yeah,
Speaker 1: looks like looks like an athletic trainer there for a second. Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, and then Chan was there, had a nice
Speaker 1: practice and then had another project do it at midnight
Speaker 1: that night. So you know how the guys usually stay
Speaker 1: back and play volleyball at practice. Yeah, I was like
Speaker 1: busting it out of there running. Yeah, we we broke,
Speaker 1: were like all I went to cream, okay, see you
Speaker 1: and I was gone, Um, got that turned in about
Speaker 1: eleven and then just like yeah, so and then I
Speaker 1: just like dropped on my bed and was just like
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, let's do it all again tomorrow. Um.
Speaker 1: But the most interesting was big Tent was tough. But
Speaker 1: for me, my senior year was kind of coasting. I've
Speaker 1: taken a lot of summer classes and got into a
Speaker 1: good spot for senior year, so that was that wasn't
Speaker 1: too bad. But um, this past weekend for the Cincinnati game, UM,
Speaker 1: was pretty crazy, just because we have a about five
Speaker 1: hours on the bus um to and from on a
Speaker 1: set at our day and so you know, usually in
Speaker 1: grad school you actually are working on the weekends. Pains
Speaker 1: me to say, but you usually do get together and
Speaker 1: so we get back at like one am after the
Speaker 1: Cincinati game, and uh, get up the next day and
Speaker 1: find my team and work for another nine hours. Um so,
Speaker 1: And I think that brings me to a good point.
Speaker 1: Is like, it is hard, it is not ideal, it's
Speaker 1: not you know, this is not like my preferred um
Speaker 1: level of like productivity. It's fun. Like I've I've literally
Speaker 1: caught myself a couple of times running from one thing
Speaker 1: to another just kind of smiling, like laughing at myself.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is ridiculous. But at the same time, yeah,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, you're like, look at how
Speaker 1: much I'm getting done, you know what I mean? Um,
Speaker 1: and look how much I can really accomplish when time
Speaker 1: management and my focus is like on high. So that's
Speaker 1: been fun to kind of recognize and kind of improve
Speaker 1: my productivity a little bit. You are listening to Beyond
Speaker 1: the Megaphone. I'm Nathan and and this is the College
Speaker 1: Athletes Network. Welcome back to Beyond the Megaphone on the
Speaker 1: College Athletes Network. This is Nathan and this is Subscribe
Speaker 1: to our podcast so you never miss another episode. Why
Speaker 1: would you want to do that? Miss one of our episodes? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's shift gears a little bit. Okay, let's talk
Speaker 1: about some of the tips and tricks and um best
Speaker 1: practices that we found UM success in and found ways
Speaker 1: to get everything done in our twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 1: You want me to start, you want to go first,
Speaker 1: Go right ahead, Okay. So I think, and it's tough
Speaker 1: because I'm now still in that kind of transition period
Speaker 1: where I'm like, undergrad was one level of productivity. Grad
Speaker 1: school is kind of at another. But it's it's really
Speaker 1: the same, you know, and and I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: the percentage of people who will end up going on
Speaker 1: beyond grad school. So I think speaking from a undergrad
Speaker 1: perspective is just as just the same because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you're learning styles. Your work ethic
Speaker 1: is the same in any area of your life. UM. So,
Speaker 1: I would say the biggest thing that I found was
Speaker 1: mixed schedules and actually take them seriously. UM. My freshman year,
Speaker 1: I remember like buying a nice calendar like leather Bound
Speaker 1: was so dope, and I was like, I'm gonna use
Speaker 1: this every day, and like on Monday, right exactly on Monday,
Speaker 1: I'd write everything down for the whole week. And be like, boom,
Speaker 1: this is perfect. By Tuesday. I had not looked at
Speaker 1: that since I wrote it on Sunday night, and I
Speaker 1: would look at it like Wednesday or Thursday, and I
Speaker 1: was like, none of this happened when it was supposed
Speaker 1: to happen, you know. So and it's it is learning,
Speaker 1: you know, there's nothing. Um, it's just part of figuring
Speaker 1: out how you want to navigate your day. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think making schedules has been super helpful for me,
Speaker 1: specifically in grad school. What I've done is I've just
Speaker 1: done day by day on a little legal pad. Um no,
Speaker 1: you know, fill in here, fill in there. It's just
Speaker 1: a blank sheet of paper. And I'm like, Okay, here's
Speaker 1: what I gotta get done from nine to noon. It's
Speaker 1: like I get done from noon to three. Um, I
Speaker 1: know that I'm gonna have practice from six to nine.
Speaker 1: So from you know, five to seven and then nine
Speaker 1: to midnight. What do I need to get done and
Speaker 1: make it realistic? Right? I'm not gonna say I'm gonna
Speaker 1: finish one product project and two hours okay, and then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start and finish another project on our three
Speaker 1: It's just not gonna happen, and that's okay. UM. Taken
Speaker 1: one day to time has been super helpful. And I
Speaker 1: even sometimes when I really need to, oh, how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna structure it, I'll put individual hours like nine am,
Speaker 1: here's what I need to do, eleven thirties what I
Speaker 1: need to do. If I know I have an appointment
Speaker 1: at write that in and then you have free fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: Usually it's like a break. Things like that. UM, which
Speaker 1: leads me to my next UM tip and trick that
Speaker 1: I've learned is give yourself brakes. You'll find time in
Speaker 1: the day to get things that you need to get done.
Speaker 1: It just it just happens. I don't know how many
Speaker 1: times I've looked at my to do listen to me like,
Speaker 1: there's no way I'm gonna get this done in the
Speaker 1: next twelve hours. And I did. And it's okay. That's
Speaker 1: not you know, that's not a pat on the back.
Speaker 1: That's just saying you are so much more capable of
Speaker 1: producing good content and getting things done. Then you realize
Speaker 1: when you just sit down, put your phone away, put
Speaker 1: all the distractions away. Never underestimate how much you can
Speaker 1: get it done an hour. Yeah, Like I'll put my
Speaker 1: phone on do not store, or I'll just throw it
Speaker 1: onto my bed across the room and just sit on
Speaker 1: my desk and I just start a timer on the
Speaker 1: on the laptop, and I'm just like, Okay, what's gonna
Speaker 1: get done in the next sixty minutes? And it's crazy.
Speaker 1: You can finish like half your day if you just
Speaker 1: get all your distractions away. UM. So I think that's
Speaker 1: a if those are my three that I could give
Speaker 1: would be make a schedule that works, that's realistic and
Speaker 1: that you can actually follow. UM. Find time to give
Speaker 1: yourself breaks. Maybe not hour and a half breaks, maybe
Speaker 1: say that save that for your meals, um. Maybe not
Speaker 1: super long breaks, but minutes whatever makes sense for you. UM.
Speaker 1: And then just staying focused, you know, and making sure
Speaker 1: that you know, by staying focused, it's gonna pay off
Speaker 1: because you're not gonna spend three hours work on the
Speaker 1: same stuff that you get done in an hour, you
Speaker 1: know what about you? UM? For me, I honestly didn't
Speaker 1: figure everything out until like this year. I freshman year COVID,
Speaker 1: all my classes were online. I did not know what
Speaker 1: an EYU classroom looks like. So I was able to
Speaker 1: do things on my own schedule, watch my lectures whenever
Speaker 1: I wanted to, wherever I wanted to. My exams were online,
Speaker 1: homework was online, like I lived my life how I
Speaker 1: wanted to. I took my one and a half hour breaks,
Speaker 1: no shame. So sophomore year I thought I was like
Speaker 1: superhuman or something. I in r A. I was on
Speaker 1: like involved in cheer. Um. I was a neuroscience major Premed.
Speaker 1: I was taking like the harder premed courses Like I
Speaker 1: just thought I could do it all, and that for me,
Speaker 1: I could not do it all. That list right there
Speaker 1: just like made me slightly tired. That made me like
Speaker 1: my heart drop again, like I'm scared. Um So I
Speaker 1: went into my sophomore year think like super were confident,
Speaker 1: thinking that I could just you know, do everything and
Speaker 1: be able to balance everything as well as I could
Speaker 1: when I literally had online classes like obviously that's not
Speaker 1: gonna work. Um So, I had a really rough year
Speaker 1: last year. I didn't I could not figure everything out,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to do all of these things, and
Speaker 1: I had all these goals and dreams. I still have
Speaker 1: all these different goals and stuff, but they've shifted obviously.
Speaker 1: Um and I don't think they necessarily shifted because I
Speaker 1: couldn't do it, but more so I prioritize different things now.
Speaker 1: Um and I learned how to, you know, manage my time.
Speaker 1: If I wanted more time, I obviously couldn't take or
Speaker 1: go to in physics right now like um and those
Speaker 1: classes didn't interest me as I took them. I had
Speaker 1: to learn the hard way that they didn't interest me,
Speaker 1: but I learned. I I think a big thing to
Speaker 1: know in this whole podcast is college is a huge
Speaker 1: learning experience and you're gonna make me stakes and things
Speaker 1: are not going to go out the way that you
Speaker 1: want them to. And you know, my suffer you for
Speaker 1: a bit, but it will get better and you'll figure
Speaker 1: out what you figure out what classes you like and
Speaker 1: who you like to hang out with in like what
Speaker 1: you like to do and stuff like that. You'll find
Speaker 1: your interests. But it took me a whole year to
Speaker 1: figure that out. So yeah, let me add in just
Speaker 1: I don't want to cut you off, but I think
Speaker 1: that's such an important point about learning experience. When I
Speaker 1: got to college, I had never ever even thought about
Speaker 1: the concept of coding or working with computers, and starting college,
Speaker 1: I was in the band. I had never thrown a
Speaker 1: human up in the air before, and now I'm here
Speaker 1: getting masters in computers and throwing people up over my
Speaker 1: head for a living. So to say, it's a learning experience.
Speaker 1: Every single path direction is completely and wonderfully different for everyone. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think that's so a good point. Okay, continue um.
Speaker 1: But now that I've got my life together, so slay
Speaker 1: of me. This is so slave of me. Um. The
Speaker 1: biggest thing that has helped me is I used this
Speaker 1: website called notion um and you can like code different things.
Speaker 1: I'm a coder to actually a coder. You can like
Speaker 1: code it to make it unique to how you was
Speaker 1: just a podcast with two nerds. Now that's what that is.
Speaker 1: I think that's what it always was that UM. So,
Speaker 1: I like, I have severe a d h D, which
Speaker 1: also doesn't help with my concept of time and scheduling
Speaker 1: and structure on all of that. Um, but I need
Speaker 1: like ten thousand lists of like the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: So my notion my front screen has like a list
Speaker 1: of a daily what I need to do my classes,
Speaker 1: so I have all my classes listed out, and then
Speaker 1: what assignments are doing that week right directly Underneath that
Speaker 1: a weekly schedule and it's everything I need to do
Speaker 1: for the week, so that can be like school, um, cheer,
Speaker 1: any games, anything like that, all just like in there
Speaker 1: underneath that, I have what I like a list of
Speaker 1: things for the next week that I like have upcoming
Speaker 1: that I need to be keeping in the back of
Speaker 1: my mind. And then I have like different pages for school,
Speaker 1: So I have one for my UM all my classes.
Speaker 1: I have like my notes in there, and my daily
Speaker 1: like list of all my exams and everything in different
Speaker 1: tabs whatever, like, I have another one for my duty
Speaker 1: schedule for r A, and then I have another one
Speaker 1: for what I need to do daily. So lists have
Speaker 1: saved my whole entire life. Like I live by using Notion.
Speaker 1: It's literally the only thing that has gotten me to
Speaker 1: do every saying in a timely fashion, and I can
Speaker 1: make it look pretty nice. So it's not sponsored, by
Speaker 1: the way, but no, it should be. If anybody from Notion,
Speaker 1: here's this. I love you. I love you. You literally
Speaker 1: stayed my college life. That's awesome, I think, And that's
Speaker 1: kind of like the last point I want to bring
Speaker 1: up is just like we talked about a little bit before,
Speaker 1: but just thinking about it again, is being a part
Speaker 1: of college athletics. College here is a choice. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean you can't sympathize for yourself. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you aren't going to have bad days. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you know, in some weird way you deserve
Speaker 1: to have a tough day ahead or a tough you know,
Speaker 1: four years ahead. We say it's a choice because, um,
Speaker 1: not everybody wants to do it. Not everybody. It feels
Speaker 1: like they have to do this. If it was easy,
Speaker 1: I think everybody would do it, right. UM. So the
Speaker 1: thing that is so important is that you should feel
Speaker 1: proud of yourself. You should feel proud of taking the
Speaker 1: extra time, taking the extra sacrifice to do the things
Speaker 1: that you love. UM, and celebrate small and large victories
Speaker 1: of your college life. UM as you get into it.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people listening are yet to
Speaker 1: um have their college experience. But just live it. Just
Speaker 1: go into it completely open minded, um and and see
Speaker 1: where it takes you. Because if I went back and asked, UM,
Speaker 1: eighteen year old Nathan, um, so where do you think
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up by the end of your college career?
Speaker 1: No chance I would have said anything about what I'm
Speaker 1: doing right now. I literally wanted to do creative writing.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, I wanted to be a journalist. What I'm
Speaker 1: clinicals like call psychological sciences. Now there you go because
Speaker 1: of it, Yeah, just to pay you back off of that.
Speaker 1: I like one thing that sticks with me, like on
Speaker 1: a day to day basis, especially when I'm just struggling
Speaker 1: to get it all together, is just something that Julie says,
Speaker 1: like this program is bigger than herself and it's a
Speaker 1: privilege to do this. It's not, you know, we're not
Speaker 1: here just because we have to be. It's a privilege,
Speaker 1: like we get the chance to be able to have
Speaker 1: this experience. And it's hard and there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: hard times, but I wouldn't change anything. Even after that
Speaker 1: horrible year, Like I it was a bad year in
Speaker 1: some places, but I also learned a lot about myself.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot about what I like want to
Speaker 1: do in life. I learned a lot about cheer, Like
Speaker 1: I got to do so many different things even though
Speaker 1: there were few hard to ms here and there. And
Speaker 1: that's college. That's college. That's so college. It's so college,
Speaker 1: so college, it's so college crazy it's crazy lit movie
Speaker 1: oh Man. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: To be on the Megaphone on the College Athletes Network,
Speaker 1: Please subscribe you never miss an episode. We would really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Um I'm Nathan and I'm Cassidy and we'll
Speaker 1: talk to you soon. Beyond the Megaphone has been a
Speaker 1: presentation of I Heart Radio and the College Athletes Network.