I don't know when I started, I knew that I was walking on a path that few people walked.Most of my peers will improve themselves through common higher education, and finally find a job with knowledge or diplomas, but my future path is destined to be another scene.
Non-stop training, playing games, achieving results, retiring, leaving the team as a coach or doing other sports-related jobs, this is the life track of an athlete.If there is no accident, I will most likely go this way.But now, something unexpected happened.My life took a huge turn here.I don't know if this is good or bad.I only know: I can't let my time go to waste, I have to learn something seriously, I have to apply what I have learned, and be a person who can realize my self-worth.
Now seems to be the best time to study - I don't have the pressure of competition, I'm not financially nervous, and my age is okay, I suddenly feel a burst of joy and tension about to face a new life, a sense of late solemnity.
Over the years, some people in the society may have a general prejudice against athletes. They seem to think that athletes are synonymous with simple minds and well-developed limbs.Even though Yao Ming, Deng Yaping, and Li Ning are well-recognized studious and quick-witted figures among the athletes, everyone still habitually sees us as a group of people who lack knowledge—I am used to this.When many students heard that we were athletes, they would reflexively say: Ah, then you don’t have a chance to study, right?
I think this statement is relatively one-sided.There are many kinds of education, cultural courses are just one of them. I have been professional athletes, especially those who can achieve certain results. They generally have very strict requirements on themselves, and they do not have the spirit of hard work and high self-discipline and self-love. Personality, it is difficult for you to achieve something in the field of sports, and many games are not won simply by wrestling. We must keep our minds flexible and clear in order to stand out from the crowd.In my opinion, many athletes who have achieved success in sports are very talented people, and these excellent qualities will also help them succeed in other fields of work.
In addition, the sports team is not an uncivilized virgin forest. While learning cultural lessons, we also need to learn how to behave in the world and how to deal with the relationship with the media and leaders (although I obviously didn’t learn this lesson very well, but I can’t deny it. This is an important life lesson).In some events with relatively generous bonuses and more public attention, there will inevitably be some gray areas. Athletes have seen more about these and are more open-minded. We realized the "unfairness" earlier than our peers. The weight of a single word, and a better understanding of how these phenomena should be viewed.To be honest, when I first entered college, I was often struck by the innocence and idealism of my peers—they were so innocent!
In short, the ruler is shorter and the inch is longer.Everyone's experience is their own precious wealth.I put other people's arguments aside, at the moment, my only concern is how to make my college time not wasted.
Specifically, my immediate priority: pick a new major for myself.
Science and engineering majors require solid basic knowledge. It may be too late for us to join in now. Everyone has chosen liberal arts majors, which are relatively easy to integrate into.
Jiang Shan and I chose journalism without hesitation.Those of us who are born athletes know the difficulties and ideals of athletes that are not known to the public.I hope that I can become a sports reporter in the future and be able to speak for athletes from the perspective of athletes.I want to be a true professional sports reporter, I don't try to trick or misinterpret athletes just to get headlines, never will.
There is a separate building for the sports class, which is full of sports students like us, all of whom are retired athletes with special skills.There are more than 30 students in the physical education class. In addition to me and Jiang Shan, our journalism major also has athletes from other sports, such as track and field and basketball players.Here, everyone lives a relatively relaxed life, enjoying the university campus life, away from the daily pressure of success and failure faced by athletes.
These are my most restful, stress-free days away from competitive sports.The days at school are carefree, and I usually go to learn taekwondo, ballroom dancing, etc. to enrich my spare time.University taught me to empathize and think about problems from different angles.I like to sit in the classroom and listen to the disagreement of my classmates, I like to hear them arguing about a problem, and I like to walk in the school and feel the peace. This is completely different from my previous life. Said it was all fresh.
The campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology is very large. It takes 15 minutes to ride a bicycle from our dormitory to the teaching building in the east, and at least 25 minutes to the teaching building in the west.We got lost on the campus on the first day of class, and with the rain, we almost couldn’t find the classroom. Class started at 8 o’clock, and we walked into the classroom at 5 minutes after 8 o’clock. Behind us, a bunch of people came one after another. Students, the teacher is very upset and asked us to write a review.So we have been paying attention since then, and we have never been late again.
The life on campus is completely different from my previous life. The students are very harmonious. In a large class of 200 students, as long as one person has the review materials for the exam, they will copy them for everyone to use together. It feels like a class is like a big family.
It was the first time for me to experience such a simple and pure life, which is a little different from the atmosphere in the sports circle.When you are in the team, you have to face a lot of things alone.Friends around you often appear as competitors, and that kind of pressure is not comparable to school-you have to compete with everyone, and you can't relax for a moment.I have experienced that kind of atmosphere since I was 11 years old, and I never took a breath in the middle.
This atmosphere, of course, has many negative effects.Our sports culture is largely based on "competition". All achievements are driven by competition. Few people can enjoy sports and get happiness from sports.We are used to the process of setting up an imaginary enemy and then defeating him.We go to such lengths to take down our imaginary enemies that no one cares whether you get pleasure from the activity.When I was playing, the pressure deep in my heart was always accumulating, more and more, deeper and deeper. When the accumulation reached a certain level, it would find a chance to burst out.Afterwards, I feel slightly better.Then continue to accumulate, accumulate, accumulate... and finally accumulate into a time bomb.How can you be happy when you live with a ticking time bomb?How can you feel relaxed and happy?This deviates from the original intention of sports.
Sometimes I'm so glad I made the choice to go to college, it opened my eyes to things I hadn't seen before.My life has been enriched by it.
There are two kinds of students in the physical education class. One is the special sports students. Like ordinary students, they have been going through elementary school, junior high school, and high school step by step... I have never been to high school, but I guess the pressure on students in high school must be great Well, because a lot of high school gym students complain that they've been in school long enough, and I think they're getting bored of school.
Jiang Shan and I belong to another kind of professional athletes who have left the team.We entered the sports school at a very young age and started professional training. There were relatively few cultural courses.We have no opportunity to study systematically, so we have a strong thirst for knowledge and retain an almost religious attitude towards learning.The two of us are like sponges that absorb water when we encounter it, absorbing as much as we can that we can't learn on the court.
Teachers usually use projectors or computers to play PPT for everyone to see in class. We often fail to keep up with writing and copying notes below. Personally, I can just make up a complete note.
We never arrive late or leave early and are serious about class discussions.There was an exam when the physical education class was taken separately. We arrived early, and the teacher also arrived early. Seeing us sitting there looking at our notes, I was shocked: "You two are in the physical education class? I always thought you were in the ordinary class. "
I was very happy to hear the teacher say this.For the first time in my life, no one valued me because of the prefixes like "Tennis Women's Singles Champion" in front of my name. I felt that I was slowly moving closer to a new goal of realizing my self-worth.
At school, I never brought up tennis, and people around me didn't know I was a tennis player.In the first two years of college, we have to take a lot of basic courses. These courses are basically held in a lecture theater that can accommodate more than 200 people. The students in the physical education class and the ordinary class sit together. If you don’t ask, no one knows which major is which. of.A female classmate next to me often exchanged notes with me. We got to know each other very well. The sophomore physical education class offered tennis as an elective course. This female classmate immediately signed up and urged me to say, "You should also enroll in tennis." !"
I said, "I don't choose, I don't know how to play tennis."
Later, a classmate of ours joined Beijing TV after graduation and became a real sports reporter. When she interviewed Zheng Jie and Yan Zi, she said: "Ah, we only know that Li Na plays tennis. I didn't expect her to play so well. It takes four years to play at such a high level.” ——she thought I only started learning tennis after I was in college.
I like this, I hope to spend four years of college life in a normal way, and then find a 9-5 job like everyone else, then get married, have children, and live a life that an ordinary woman should have.
During my two years in college, I was exposed to many things that I had no time or mood to touch before.We don't have to go to physical education class, the school directly gave us five credits of physical education class.Jiang Shan knew that I wanted to get in touch with the new world, so he took me to play badminton, learn taekwondo, and dance, and had a great time.The taekwondo teacher likes tennis. He is one of the few people in the school who understands our background.After dinner in the evening, we went to him to practice and press the ligaments. The teacher kept teasing Jiang Shan: "Open bigger, open the splits! Hurry up!"
Jiang Shan's face was red and his ears were red with sweat: "I can't do it! I can't do it!"
The teacher still does not give up: "Persevere! Persevere!"
A few young people had a great time. At that time, I was very happy every day. Even in the hot summer, I went to the Taekwondo gym to practice. .
After adapting to the rhythm of the school, I found that studying is actually not that difficult. Compared with the days of training on the team, I have more free time in college.We rush around to catch up with classes during the day, and when I have time at night, I drag Jiang Shan around the school.
In college, I like to go to the night market at night to browse small shops and buy some fruits, duck necks and so on, and I feel very satisfied in my heart.Jiang Shan found a small shop for renting discs in a small shop next to the market. Every time he went there, he would buy some discs, and we would go back to watch discs together at night.At that time, I liked watching American dramas. "CSI Las Vegas", I really like it, and I watched it over and over again.Jiang Shan likes watching movies like "Young and Dangerous".We watched a lot of movies and series during that time.
I've never been so relaxed in my life!I no longer have to get up early in the morning to run exercises, and I don’t have to work hard to practice the ball. The only small depression is that I was braced at the time, and I had to take the bus to the hospital every two weeks.The process of braces was quite painful, and the teeth would hurt when I put a little force on them. When I braced my teeth, I dared not eat any solid food. I drank porridge and rice noodles with a bitter face every day. Fortunately, Jiang Shan was by my side to take care of me.
Once I accidentally sneezed, and I just bit my upper and lower teeth, and the pain made me teary.It was just in time for dinner, but I was so hurt that I couldn't eat anything.Jiang Shan had no choice but to go to the cafeteria and buy a bowl of rice noodles for me to eat slowly by myself.Huake University is very large, with more than 20 canteens, large and small, and there are many delicious foods that change every day.It's a pity that I wear braces and can't eat good things.
There is a statue of Chairman Mao at the entrance of Huake. Chairman Mao raised his hand. The old man said that the name of the statue is "Chairman Mao waves me forward."Jiang Shan said that this posture is very similar to "Chairman Mao helped us take a taxi".To make me happy, he called me to watch "Chairman Mao Help Us Take a Taxi" every time he walked from there.Don't say it, it really looks like it.
When we were in school, not many people knew that we were professional athletes, but we had to go out and play some college games on behalf of the school from time to time.Although we will not work as hard as when we were in the team, we will still go to the court to practice more or less, so as not to be too poor when we go out to play college games and lose the people from Huake University.At this time, there are no time and quantity requirements for the practice. If you are happy, you can play for a while, and if you are not happy, you can go home early. It is just an activity without a strong purpose.It feels good to hit once in a while.
When I was a freshman, we represented the school in the national college competition.The school encouraged us to award three credits for winning the championship.Later, I came back and left China University of Science and Technology. Jiang Shan also played for the school. During the summer vacation in July 2003, the two of us returned to the Hubei team to train for a period of time in order to play the college game.
Returning to the training ground, the mentality is completely different.Because our focus is on studies, the current training has a little bit of enjoyment, but after a few weeks of training, I got blisters on my feet. I have been away from professional training for a long time, and when I return to the training ground, I feel like enjoying it Yes, the foot suffered a little crime.
The final of the university competition was in Qingdao. When I played this game, I met many good friends who are still in the tennis circle.In the past, we were both friends and competitors. It was a bit weird to eat together off the court and work hard when we met on the court.This time the mentality was very relaxed, and I really made friends through competitions.
After the competition, I continued to go back to the university to study and enjoy my leisurely study time.However, the tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop.Although I left the team, I still maintain a good personal relationship with the young players in the team.The original teammates began to come to me frequently.As the days went by, someone gradually spread the word that "the team wants you to go back".
