Aquatic Monologue

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

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.

Can you imagine your country limiting the number of kids you can have? In 1980-2016 China created a policy where a couple could only have 1 child, in other words the kids didn't have siblings. This policy is a one-child policy. It lasted 36 years, was all those years worth it? Is it a good Idea?

Success is something that most people hope for when they begin to work towards a goal. Often times, the same feeling of accomplishment can drive one to seek for more. In the case of Macbeth, what is once looked upon as a prize for hard work, now becomes an addictive drug. In Macbeth, William Shakespeare portrays to the audience that no matter how innocent a person may be, ambition can find a way to poison a person’s mind and make them do unimaginable, evil deeds.

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

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.

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

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.

Drug abuse is something that has plagued Americans over the years and continues to be an issue today. The hippie culture of the 1960s contributed to a rise in drug abuse. In addition, the Vietnam war created an awareness that servicemen were coming back to America addicted to Heroin. The Drug Abuse Prevention Treatment & Rehabilitation Act “states that control of drug abuse requires the development of a comprehensive, coordinated long term federal strategy that encompasses both effective law enforcement against illegal drug traffic and effective health programs to rehabilitation victims of drug abuse”(US Legal, 2016, para 2). The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 was the first ban on the distribution of drugs and in 1919 the alcohol prohibition

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.

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.

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.

The next part of the training turned out to be the toughest. We were required to dive ten feet to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a ten pound weight. Once the weight was brought to the surface we were supposed to tread water for two minutes while keeping the weight above the water line. This appeared to be simple so I dived in, expecting an easy time. I had no trouble getting the weight to the surface and proceeded to tread water with a feeling of undoubtable success. But once again my anti-floating physical quality began to take effect. At one minute and thirty seconds I began to sink and within the next fifteen seconds my head was submerged and I was fighting for air. The water from the pool began flowing into my mouth with each desperate grasp for air; it felt as if an ocean were draining into my body. I remember hearing from under the water the instructor's muffled voice counting down the last ten seconds of the exercise. When it was all over I slowly made my way back to the pool's edge where I was informed by the two young girls that they had no difficulty

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

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