My Experience In Middle School

Out of the corner of my eye, I could spy them encouraging me to speed up during my races, their voices ringing in my ears as I surfaced to breathe. In the time not spent in the water, we would converse, discussing preferences and abhorrences, exchanging stories and light banter. We held random competitions in our miniscule team area, involving bottle-flipping contests or bets placed on who would win the ongoing heat. After each race, my coaches would approach and congratulate me, where they informed me of my various errors and techniques to improve my mistakes. Ultimately, they inspired me to overcome pain and difficulty in order to achieve my goals.

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.

In middle school, 5th to 8th grade, I endure multiple adjective to describe my experience in middle school. While in Middle School, I struggle with my appearance which has stayed as an adult. For I always look at myself and all the flaws in my features, as my family members and/or friends state my beauty features, I will brushed them off by stating the negative feature I visually observe. Until recently, I’ve overcome my inability of reading in public and/or to my peers. As my cousin passed away tragically, his mother (my Aunt) asked if I will read his poem to her and a group of 50 strangers. She knew my fear of public speaking, she also knew my dream of becoming a teacher and starting to a career as a substitute teacher. Therefore, she knew I needed to overcome the fear of speaking. I am extremely pleased with myself to speak clearly and to have the strength and encouragement of my family to overcome my greatest fear with a poem in dedication to my beloved cousin.

“Take your marks”, the referee said then boom as fast as lighting I heard the beep and leapt from the blocks and raced my heart out. As I raced I felt amazing hitting ever flip turn perfectly not missing a stroke and then I finished looked up and say I had done it. I beat the kid who said I was bad and couldn’t swim. We then all got out and I went over to congratulate him. We sho hands and said good job but that’s when I asked him why he had said those words. He didn’t know why he had done it. He apologized and said that he had underestimated me, and from this day on he was no longer so cocky, his temple had been crushed and he no longer underestimated me. So this shows and explains the morals of this story. You can have a different perspective on people or judge them in a wrong way. This person happened to look at me and think to himself that I was a bad swimmer, somebody who would never win, and somebody who would never beat him. He looked at me and judged me before he even knew if I was good or not. I beat him and proved to him that I wasn’t this “sucky swimmer”, and this is the story of when someone miss judged

For starters, I was embarrassed by the mental image of myself flailing around in the water and for what I perceived as making a mockery of the team I represented. Not only this, but I became livid with myself, for the hardest and fastest I was able to make my body move still was not enough to comply with my personal expectations. The vow I created on the car ride home still stands in effect to this date; to strive to my greatest potential, making the goal universal for every characteristic of my life.

During the spring of 2015, I missed all of the time cuts to make Speedo Sectionals, forcing me to compete in a much slower meet at the end of the season. There are few things I have experienced that are more crushing than trying my hardest and falling short of my goal. Despite the heavy disappointment, I used the opportunity to harden my resolve and use my strengths to my greatest advantage. Along with my coach’s help, I used my ability to think strategically and hone my technique through focus on the smallest details from how I would approach a swim mentally to how I would warm up. My coach had many important and useful suggestions and lessons from his past experience that required me to be an active learner that could apply his information.

“Well, I have a tale I will gladly tell.” said the swimmer”It’s sad but, joyous! Brave but, cowardly! Now gather ‘round and listen close for this is my tale!”

Standing behind the starting block, I began to turn my head in both directions, eying out my competition. Standing behind lane four, I began to see who was seeded ahead of me. Seeing Her I began to shake girl standing behind lane three was Maya, my friend and the fastest swimmer on our team. Every chance I got to race her, I always messed up, one way or another.

Marilyn Bell Di Lascio showed us that even if we aren’t good at something, that doesn’t mean we should give up. Through her story, “The True Story of Lake Ontario”, Marilyn talked about not being a very good swimmer in the beginning, but her determination was what kept her going, which also led her to meet Gus Ryder, her future coach, and join Toronto’s Lakeshore Swimming Club. She also talked about not being able to go to the Olympics. After realizing her skills would not be able to lead her there, she changed her perspective and focused on training for other swimming competitions. Marilyn inspired us to not give up our dreams and that our determination and hard work will pay

Even though I had swum on a relay with my lane mates at the MHSAA D1 State Championship Meet the season before, come in seventh place out of the entire state with them on that relay, and shattered the Varsity record with them, I still doubted my ability to make the required pace times. “Get ready girls, this should be a super fun set!” Our coach jokingly shouted. In my mind, I was writing my will, dedicating the set we were about to swim—which I thought was going to be my last—to my teammates, and preparing for the absolute

I began swimming at the age of 4 and I was fortunate to earn a college swimming scholarship at Purdue University. At Purdue, I was a good swimmer and really worked hard each and every day. However, my at the time girlfriend (and current wife, also a swimmer) always said I looked like a recreational swimmer! She made this comment as I wore "old school" foam goggles and my head moved all around during freestyle. Needless to say, my breathing biomechanics were far from ideal, despite being on a collegiate swimming scholarship!

My superlative race individually happened in the Ness City cross country invitational during my freshman year. This competition was smaller, but there were still a plethora of girls in the race. Starting the race, I was running exceptional. After the first mile, I felt alright so I told myself that I could push the pace a little. Gradually, I crept up right behind the girl in second place. Wishing to not start my kick too soon by reason of not knowing if this competitor had a decent kick left or not. About 200 meters away from the finish, I told myself that I needed to get it in gear. The girl that was in second, followed, so I pushed a little harder. She gradually fell back and I progressively advanced farther and farther ahead of her. When I completed the race, I glanced over my shoulder and she was still about 50 meters out. Afterwards, I satisfied with my performance and proud of myself for pushing myself to the edge, considering it allowed me to obtain second place. Helping me become not only physically tough, but also mentally tough. To push your body to its breaking point you have to be mentally tough. Feeling like you are going to throw up at the end, but at the same time you are so overjoyed for pushing yourself. This is a runner’s high, and I consider it one of the best sensations in the world.

“Swimmers step up,” the announcer was starting me for my first IM (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle). I stepped up to the block my knees shaky and I was feeling weak as my stomach was turning in knots. I tightened my goggles and stepped up to the block. “Take your mark” I bent down ready to leap off the block and then “BEEEEP”. Before I knew it I was in the water swimming butterfly in the icy cold water.

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.

Ever since my childhood, I have many qualities while I wasn’t by any means exceptional in any of those, I always had the self-satisfaction with what I’ve had. I had the grades, the ability to play the piano, using a personal computer, and constructing vehicles using Legos. Possessing all these skills made me feel arrogant, despite me not being exceptional in any of them. However, one skill that I felt embarrassed about, swimming was not in my repertoire of skills that I possessed. In elementary school during our little morning gatherings, we would discuss our weekend plans. Students boasted about how well they performed during the swim meet or how much of an amusing experience they had during their time in the pool. I’ve asserted the idea countless times that swimming was an essential skill, so the idea popped out that I requested my dad to sign me up for swim lessons. With pleasure, he signed me up for a swim course that lasted two weeks in the community center. I had high expectations