circa285

Jesus, I was in the Olympic Developmental Program for soccer in the early aughts and this hits home so hard. I gave up so much so early for a shot at playing at the highest level of American soccer and once it was over I had nothing. The skills that I learned while training for soccer are only useful for playing soccer. There are some soft skills that generalize into other areas of my life, but for the most part I gave up the first 18 or so years of my life for a sport that I haven't played for at least 10 years.

After a lot of therapy and a lot of introspection, I can say that I wouldn't do it any differently. Having said that, I wish that I had found therapy about 10 years earlier because that would have changed a lot for me. I have a successful career and am happy, but I lost 2 years of my life to depression and I won't ever get that time back. Athletics at the highest level are amazing but like most things that time comes to an end and you have to reckon with what comes next.

No problem. I'm not inclined to talk about it often because I feel like few people understand it, but I saw some your responses in this thread and they resonated with me on a very deep level.