After living in the area of Bavaria, Germany for 16 years and playing tennis there, junior Michael Sy came to the United States after his father landed a job at James Madison University.

“[I played tennis] last year, and before that, in Germany,” Sy said.

In Sy’s opinion, living in the U.S. is more quiet and sparse than living in Germany because in Germany, his peers were mostly engaged in other activities besides school and extracurriculars.

“They’re all partying the whole time [in Germany]… and the population [is] more dense over there,” Sy said.

Even though the change between countries was drastic, Sy maintained an important part of his life: tennis. However, his interest in tennis often conflicts with his job that he got at McDonald’s, often requiring him to take off work if it doesn’t work with his sports schedule.

“I sometimes play tennis and then I need to go to work right away after practice, but sometimes if I have a match and I’m scheduled to work, I need to call out,” Sy said.

Since Sy has lived in the U.S. for two years, he played tennis last year in addition to this year, and he is now situated between the fourth seed and sixth seed, which means he’s on a higher position on the team. In addition to this high position and the fact that he has a job, Sy also has to balance school work.

“You just get tired, really tired, after weekends especially because you can’t rest on the weekends,” Sy said.

However, Sy believes the school work part doesn’t play into his busy weekends, but he sometimes finds it piling up.

“Sometimes I’m sitting [doing all my homework] Sundays at night,” Sy said.

Although getting a job creates a busier schedule, Sy originally got the job at McDonald’s in order to make money, not to take up his free time. However, his main reason for getting the job at McDonald’s specifically was because of its proximity to his house, as well as the fact that it pays higher than other fast food jobs.

“[I work at McDonald’s because] it’s kind of close to me and I can walk if I want to,” Sy said.

Although Sy has a job that he works three to four days of the week, a senior level class load and a high spot on the tennis team, he still manages to juggle all of his responsibilities.