Aquatic Monologue

When I was five years old, I joined the Carroll Aquatic Swim Team. I stuck with it because I loved being underwater, feeling the refreshing water all over and the sensation of touching the wall, finishing first hearing the people holler. When I got older I just didn’t have much care for it. So, I decided that I wanted to give up. Then, my mom told me that I should finish the season than I could determine, nevertheless, I did as I was told. At my last meet, my mom signed me up to swim the IM which is when you swim all four strokes. I was convinced that I couldn’t do it because I had never done it before. I told my mom that I couldn’t and I would fail, but my friend convinced me that I should do it. She told me that I would only disappoint people if I gave up; consequently, I swam and received first place. In conclusion, I ended up feeling the same exciting feeling as when I was five.

My parents tell me that I took to swimming like... a fish takes to water. It is a safe place where I can float free of worries. Driven by passion and dedication, I decided to begin swimming competitively. Competitive swimming requires an intense level of determination and discipline. Forcing myself to get out of my warm bed at 5:30 in the morning to put on a still-slightly-damp swimsuit and stand in 40-degree weather waiting for practice to start. Putting up with limited lane space and irritating swimmers who think they are faster. Making a conscious effort to work on my stroke form, turns, touches, and techniques. The water becomes a whirlpool of injuries, losses, wins, friendships, enemies, and sickness. The water becomes home.

It wasn’t like any other swim practice, no, not like any other I’d ever gone to. No one usually moved to Minot, North Dakota that was also in swimming, so when Emily Pitcher and her family moved to town and came to practice, it was quite a shock for everyone on the team. She moved from Colorado and she had 2 younger brothers and a younger sister as well. They seemed nice enough but there was something about Emily, who was my age, which seemed a bit off.

When I first joined the North Attleboro Swim Team my freshman year of high school, I did not know what to expect. Prior to joining, I had never swam on a team before so it was a whole new experience to me. As the first week of swim started, I was apprehensive if I wanted to continue since I was not on the same caliber as my other teammates were. The practices were brutal but extremely rewarding, as I strived to prove myself and to my coaches. As my freshman season was under way, a couple of upperclassmen took

The journey of competitive swimming started at the age of eight for my local `neighborhood team. I exhibited great potential for the future, for I won nearly all my races. This seemed like the sport

I. (Gain attention and interest) I remember joining the high school swim team back in my sophomore year. I remember struggling to catch a breath in between every stroke while simultaneously trying not to breath in any water. To be honest, swimming scared me, but drowning scared me more.

Being tall, lanky, and uncoordinated (and therefore not particularly good at traditional sports), I was signed up for the Wallingford YMCA Dolphin swim team when I was 10 years old. I certainly wasn’t a Michael Phelps, but I definitely found more success in swimming than baseball, soccer, or basketball, so I stuck with it. During the next few years, I continued to improve my technique in all four strokes, and other intricate parts of swimming including starts (dives), turns, and finishes. I eventually became a pretty good swimmer, but retired from my swimming career after 8th grade because it was not offered at our high school. In all honesty, I did not completely miss it because I ran cross country in the fall, and track in the winter and

Swimming is an integral part of my life—between training at swim practice, lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons, I rarely spend any time on land. Swimming for the Allen High School; Varsity Team has

At my very first swimming lesson it was scary being thrown into something that was so unfamiliar! But despite my fear, I swam across the entire pool all on my own and I was actually pretty good. I was encouraged by great Y staff to keep swimming, and shortly thereafter, I ended up joining the Y’s swim team.

Swimming was not my specialty for a long time. It all started when I was four years old, my family went to country springs. I headed to the Lily pads, but I was too small to reach the ropes up above them so I decided to leap across them. I got to the first pad clean, but when I leapt to the second pad I slipped off and fell right to the floor of the pool and almost drowned. luckly a lifeguard saw me and saved me from drowning. After that scarring event, I was scared of swimming for a long time.

When practice ended, I slowly got changed and said goodbye to all my teammates. It was really hard to leave them, especially since I had played with some of them for almost 4 years. After I had said all of my goodbyes, I turned to my coach, whom I had known for the entire time I had played water polo, about 5 years. I took a picture with him, and started to turn away. As I was walking away, he called after me to come back. When I faced him again, he told me to remember this club, and to represent them well at my new one.

“On your mark… Set… *BUZZ*.” One last breath of brisk air filled my lungs and the next second my cold body was submerged in the comforting warm water. Suddenly, the water was no longer aquamarine, but a greenish blurry hue. I wanted to stay at the bottom of the pool. After breaking the surface of the water my arms became like propellers on a boat. Going and going. This meet would secure my spot on varsity, proving that the tears due to aching muscle, the buckets of sweat, the late nights doing homework because of the longer days in the pool would be worth everything. Because it was everything. Ending this meet badly was not an option. A flip turn was essential, but that was troublesome due to the blue tinted goggles slipping from my cap during the dive. But I went for it. Arms at my side, knees and head tucked. I flipped and went to kick off the wall, but felt nothing. Instantly disqualified.

This made my body less buoyant and my speed somewhat slow. There were two sixteen year old girls in the lanes on either side of me who swam with the agility of dolphins. These girls and everyone else beat me to the finish, which did not help my nineteen-year-old ego. I wanted to crawl away and hide but was determined not to let myself be outdone.

Swimming has been a part of my life since I was six years old, and it has only become a bigger part of my life as I got older. Interestingly enough, I hated swimming during the first couple years and if it wasn’t for my parents forcing me to stick with it, I would have quit. But, I started to grow an appreciation for the sport as I made some of my best friends through my team and having a lot of fun competing in meets. Today, I have made my best friends through swimming and have had some of my greatest memories through competitions such as the state meet my senior year when my team won the state meet. My team got a National record and numerous state records and it was one of the greatest moment of my life and is a big reason why I decided to continue my swim career in college. During my recruiting trip to Miami, I knew almost instantly that it was the place for me. The swim team was very close-knit and I knew it was an environment where I could continue to make some of my closest friends. The coaches and facilities proved to me that this was a team that was

Growing up, my dad always used to brag that my sister and I started learning how to swim the moment we were out of our diapers. Being a former swimming champion, he considered swimming to be just as important as breathing. Since our house was just an hour away from the beach, he would take us there every Saturday and personally teach us the different strokes. In grade school, I joined the swim team and participated in several meets. Midway through high school, I had to give it up because I was having trouble balancing training, academics and my other extra-curricular activities. But I still set goals for myself and went to the school pool every morning to swim laps for at least thirty minutes—a practice that