It’s difficult to be a young performer carrying a front-burner storyline on a soap opera. It’s also difficult to be a NCAA Division I student-athlete at a top-tier college like the University of Southern California.

Add in an upheaval to your personal life like a parent with a terminal illness, and it surely can all be a lot to handle!

As GENERAL HOSPITAL star Eden McCoy (Josslyn) recently explained to her co-stars Steve Burton (Jason) and Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) on their Daily Dish podcast, the culmination of all that ultimately led her to make the difficult decision to take a step back from her college studies.

“To be a D1 athlete at a school like USC is such an honor, such a privilege,” said McCoy, who was recruited by USC’s beach volleyball team when she was just a high school freshman. “It was just a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Reflecting on her college days, McCoy was amazed at how she juggled the intense training schedule of being on the beach volleyball team (the Women of Troy were the NCAA champions the year she played), working a full-time job at GH, and managing her studies.

“I don’t even know how I did it,” she marveled. “Now that that’s not my life anymore, I couldn’t do it now. I was used to that speed, always. I’ve never worked here and not gone to school, not played that sport.”

However, when her mom got sick, McCoy decided to take a gap year and move back home, she confessed. (The actress’ mother, Natasha, sadly died of cancer in November 2023.) “It just changed my life,” she shared.

“When things like that go down and you realize there’s no plan and time isn’t promised at all and you’re owed absolutely nothing and your life just blows up overnight… it was a huge, awesome lesson to be like, what am I doing, and why?”

After some self-reflection, McCoy realized that while education will always be important to her, so was building and focusing on her acting career. “I came to a point in my life where I really wanted to think about how I was spending my time, and why,” she explained.

“And all of the directions just pointed to this is my career and what I want to do for the rest of my life. Employment is hard. Luckily with a job like this, it’s a lot of job stability. But I was in class, and I just wanted to be working.

And when you know what you want to do so badly, you just want to do it. And if you’re lucky enough that that’s an option…it just kind of gave me a shift in my perspective.”

Channeling her focus into honing her craft, the Daytime Emmy winner added, “Learning is so important to me, education is so important to me. But I want to build it towards a goal and towards something.

I found an amazing acting class and teacher who I started working with right out of the gate right when I took time off.”

Perhaps someday, McCoy will resume her college education. But for now, she’s content with the decision she’s made. “I don’t know my path. I don’t know when, if, I’ll go back.

I just know for me, I feel so lucky to one, have a job, two, have a job actually doing something I like… that when I’m here and I have this job, I just want to take as much advantage of it as I can. I’m very happy now with where I’m at.”