In the Rose-Becker Cafe this Wednesday, the head coach of Cornell’s Varsity men’s tennis team gave a talk about what it means to be a student athlete in college, particularly at an Ivy League college, and more specifically at Cornell. There were five main points that he presented, and though I wasn’t able to stay the entire hour and hear him expand on each of those five, they all made a lot of sense and seemed extremely transferrable to other aspects of life, not just collegiate-level athletics.
The first thing that Coach Silviu discussed was the privilege of being a student athlete at Cornell. “There are 48 Ivy League tennis players out of seven billion people worldwide,” I remember him saying. “There’s a higher chance of winning the lottery in every country than there is becoming an Ivy League tennis player. This statistic not only shocked me but really forced me to take a moment to stop and reflect on how lucky we all are. I mean, yeah only six of us at Cornell play for the men’s tennis team, but another similar privilege can be applied to us: out of tens of thousands of applicants, each of us was hand-picked to attend such a prestigious institution as ours, an honor that is sure to help us reap many benefits in the future.
The second point discussed was the responsibility that comes with that privilege. At one point, Coach Silviu compared being a student athlete at Cornell to getting a medical degree while also trying to complete military school. What a comparison, I remember thinking, but then again, that’s probably an accurate assessment. Although it doesn’t even seem like much, being in 18 credits and working 6-8 hours a week already stresses me out enough as it is; I couldn’t imagine adding to my schedule 6:00 AM workouts and weekend games/matches out of state. By being at Cornell and enduring the workload that we do, we’re all inevitably sacrificing something, but this point specifically gave me a new appreciation for those who do all that and then some.
This point tied in really well the third and fourth ones: the adversity faced as a student athlete is something that needs to be turned into a good thing: “‘Turn adversity into your best friend,’ I always tell my players. It’s through adversity that one has the chance to explore how far they can go, how far they can push themselves. It’s important to be thankful for this because it’s part of what makes you who you are.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. And (once again applying it to my own life), I found myself thinking about how I often remind myself when I’m basically sinking in schoolwork that it’s all going to pay off eventually. Even though it may stink at the moment, it’s going to give me an awesome foundation for my future and better prepare me for both my career and my adult life. This point was a nice, and well-timed, reminder of this.
And lastly, Coach Silviu brought up relationships, and used a personal anecdote to drive the point home. Growing up in Romania, he didn’t have the opportunities that many athletes are afforded here, but when an amazing one presented itself (the opportunity to play in Miami), his parents made the ultimate sacrifice of selling their car in order to buy him a round-trip ticket. This point was also extremely well-timed in that it prompted me to remember just how much my parents have done to get me where I am today as well as how much they’ve encouraged me through everything, highs and lows alike. And just as I was getting super homesick, too…
Clearly, even though I was only able to attend half of this cafe series, I learned A LOT from tennis/life coach Silviu Tanasoiu, and I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to hear him speak.