"Resolve to succeed. The greatest discovery one can make is that nothing is impossible."

UNKNOWN

When I was 17 years-old, I was invited to play at the most competitive volleyball juniors league of South America in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil. It was during my last year of high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and accepting that offer meant not only move to another country with a different language and culture but also to quit school and having to take all 13 exams at the end of the school year to be able to graduate.

As weird as it may sound, my parents agreed to let me go do that experience and made me promise I would end up graduating from high school that same year.

Most of my teachers weren’t happy about my decision and several asked me to reconsider and even told me I had to choose between studying or practicing high-level, competitive sports, but I wasn’t listening much of their arguments as none of them had any clue of what it meant to be a student-athlete.

It was hard to imagine that the decision ended up being the first step towards a life of adventures and great opportunities around the world.

In many parts of the globe, being an athlete is thought to be detrimental to the life of the student and cannot be conceived that a young man or woman may be able to excel in both, sports and academics. The reality, on the other hand, has proven that many of the most successful students are also competitive athletes and this happens at all levels of education, from elementary school to college.

Nowadays, my job takes me hand to hand into the life of young people finishing their time as student-athletes and getting into the world of job searching and resume writing.

About 15 years ago I wrote my first resume and since then I started to appreciate the fact that in many places of the global world, the experience of the student-athlete is recognized as added value to head hunters.

The fact that student-athletes have to deal with organizing their schedules for lessons, practices, traveling, personal life and, in many cases, work, is seen as an extraordinary skill that will allow the new and young worker get adapted faster to the working and continuously changing environment.

Not only, but also head hunters look at team players and leadership roles and without a doubt athletes can be proud of having experience, sometimes for many years, in positions within their teams that will put their resumes at the top of the pile on the desk of anyone looking to add a new employee.

If you are reading this blog and feel overwhelmed about your life as a student-athlete or see your kid having trouble dealing with sport and school, know that is all worth it and most of the difficult times will pass to lead the way for a life of great success.