Yasmin Ruck's alarm goes off at 5:45AM. About six things in her body pop as she rolls out of bed and onto the floor, where she falls back asleep for five minutes before realizing where she is. Beside her face is an empty bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos—not hers.

Repulsed, she gets up and ambles over to her desk chair, where her gym clothes wait. Yasmin drags her clothes on, grabs her keys and headphones, and sneaks out of her dorm room. Her roommate got in really late last night and she doesn't want to wake her up…even though she leaves trash all over their dorm room.

On the front doorstep, Yasmin puts in her headphones and starts jogging. She goes for thirty easy minutes and then ducks back into her dorm to grab her pre-packed gym bag and backpack.

That's my warm-up done, Yasmin thinks to herself as she wolfs down two energy bars. No time for a real breakfast; she'll have to eat a proper meal after weightlifting. For now, it's energy bars and Gatorade—lots of Gatorade.

On the way to the gym, Yasmin runs into the team captain, Hailey. (Not literally, of course—she only actually runs into members of opposing teams.)

"Ready to work out?" Hailey flexes her arms jokingly. Yasmin marvels at Hailey's biceps, which are the size of cantaloupes. Hailey's a senior and she's been playing rugby for basically her whole life. Yasmin can only hope her biceps will resemble some kind of melon by the time she gets to senior year. Currently, they're more like oranges.

And pretty small oranges, at that.

When they get to the weight room, they split off and start pumping iron like there's no tomorrow. Hailey bench-presses some massive barbells, while Yasmin opts for bicep curls—less flashy, but a better way to start a workout… in her humble opinion. She likes to ease into things.

Every one of Yasmin's muscles shake gently by the time she finishes her workout, but she feels good about her progress. A few months ago, she would have rolled over and died halfway through that workout like a sad little bug.

During the hour-long break between the end of her weightlifting and her first class, Yasmin goes straight to the cafeteria. Today she longs for French toast sticks covered in syrup and butter. Syrup and butter, however, are two things that she really has to limit, so instead she eats eggs, toast, yogurt, and fruit. Sigh.

After breakfast, Yasmin goes to her classes and then work. She has a part-time job at the cafeteria; a rugby scholarship isn't nearly enough to defray the cost of school and those napkin holders aren't going to refill themselves.

As usual, the heavenly aromas of the cafeteria make Yasmin even more aware of her hunger. She watches longingly as the non-athletes load up their plates with mac and cheese, fries, and brownies.

In her head, Yasmin grabs the nearest offender by the collar and looks him dead in the eye. "Cherish that junk food," she warns him. Bringing his face closer to hers, the sweet smell of syrup wafts from his open mouth. "Do you hear me? Cherish it! Cherish it!" Yasmin shakes the poor freshman like a Polaroid picture.

Yasmin awakens from her stupor to discover that she's still behind the counter, at a safe distance from the carefree students that she so envies. Phew. Close one.

She knows that her lunch will be something high-fiber and low-fat—probably boiled chicken and blanched kale. Healthy food got really old really fast for Yasmin.

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone? (Source)

By 6:00PM, all of Yasmin's classes and shifts are done and she is completely pooped. All she wants to do is put her feet up and watch TV—but that's going to have to wait. Now, it's time to put her gym clothes back on and head to practice.

Somehow, the thought of an exhausting rugby practice makes Yasmin feel less tired and sore. You know what they say about doing what you love.

Practice starts with a grueling warm-up involving sprints, push-ups, sit-ups, and stretches that make Yasmin feel like her coach is secretly trying to turn them all into pretzels.

After warm-up comes drills—lots and lots of drills. They do running drills. They do ball-passing drills. They do running-and-ball-passing drills. Drills, drills drills.

During practice, the team jokes and laughs a lot, and Coach Maul is nothing but encouraging. She even manages to make criticism sound like a compliment. Even though practice is serious business, nobody's ever really serious during it.

"Keep those heads up!" Coach yells as they practice tackling each other at top speed. "You only get one brain in this life; treat it like a princess!"

This is your brain. (Source)

After two hours of practice, the team spends fifteen minutes lying on the grass gasping for air. Yasmin picks herself up off the grass and heads to the locker room, where she's intercepted by Coach Maul.

"You were looking good out there," Coach Maul says.

Yasmin grins sheepishly. Coach Maul never says things she doesn't mean. "Thank you."

"Keep it up," Coach Maul says, then she pats Yasmin's shoulder briefly. "I know freshman year is hard on everyone. We lose a lot of great players in the first two years."

"There's no chance of that," Yasmin replies, and she means it. She loves rugby too much to ever give it up. "You're never getting rid of me."

Coach Maul laughs. "That's what I like to hear. Go hit the showers, Ruck. You've earned it."

Yasmin showers, changes back into her street clothes, heads to the library, and does her homework as fast as she can. She wants nothing more than to get back to her dorm and watch cute cat videos in her pajamas.

It's nearly 10:00PM when Yasmin finally makes it back to her dorm. "Exhausted" is an understatement for what Yasmin feels. When she gets inside, she finds her roommate, Sabrina, hunched at her desk, mumbling furiously into her sketchbook.

"Drawing teacher kicking your butt?" Yasmin asks dryly as she drops her bags on the floor.

"Ugh, I can't believe how much work this art major is!" Sabrina rubs her face without thinking and smears charcoal all over it. Yasmin contemplates telling her, but ultimately decides against it. She needs a good laugh after a long day.

Sabrina continues, "You were so smart to choose computer science."

Yasmin chuckles as she packs up her bags for tomorrow. Once that's done, she gets ready for bed, snuggles under her blankets, and watches adorable videos about confused kittens until she falls asleep.