Football season is the most wonderful time of the year. Filled with team spirit, tailgating, and spending Saturday nights underneath the lights, it’s a time to sit back, relax, and be entertained. That is, unless you’re dating someone on the team, then things get a little bit more complicated. The word “athlete” might mean entertainment to you, but to the “normie” girlfriend of a D1 athlete, it means something much different.
I should start by letting you know that the word normie was not made up by me. My boyfriend plays football at the University of Cincinnati, and one night while we were talking he let the term normie slip out of his mouth. Apparently that means all the normal college kids that don’t play sports — aka me. Super awkward, but I’ve embraced this term ever sense.
Dating a D1 athlete is hard. I’m not going to say it’s not because then I’d just be lying. Basically, I’m in a relationship with not only him but football as well. Before planning things together, I have to make sure his football schedule will let me. I have to wait until late at night to get my phone calls and spend holidays with him weeks after they’ve already passed. It takes a strong person to manage life as a full-time student with a full-time sport, but top that all off with a full-time girlfriend and I genuinely don’t know how he does it. Or, for that matter, how my normie self is strong enough to deal with it.
Although it’s tough to deal with all the planning, re-planning, and juggling that goes into make our time together work, when we’re finally together, it’s all completely worth it. Sure, it sucks to not be normal. It’s tough to spend more than six years with someone that you can only see one, maybe two weekends a month, but in the end, I wouldn’t change a thing.
I know that sounds weird to say. Yes, it’s terrible not being able to see each other all the time and it sucks having to split my time with him when I want it all to myself, but ultimately it makes us stronger. We got to grow up separately while still being together. He got to develop into the amazing athlete that he is today and I got to be the best normie I could be. Neither of us would be the same if we hadn’t gotten to do what made our hearts happiest, and at the end of the day, we’re a much stronger couple for it.
I’m still not going to pretend it’s easy though. I cry because he’s far away, it’s hard, his team loses, or simply just because I’m just so stinking proud of him. I sit and wonder sometimes what college would be like if we were normal, but I genuinely wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure, the time spent apart is rough and I have things that I constantly worry about, but our normie to athlete ratio is perfect right where it’s at.
