Personal Narrative: A Career In Swimming

I’ve never been interested in sports. I was a fast runner in my Physical Education classes, but I couldn’t kick a ball without falling. My parents signed me up for the local swim team, but after one year I quit. I never thought that not having athletic ability would help me.

Westfield High School swimmers practiced for one last day on January 6 before the Hoosier Crossroads Conference, which would be the following day hosted by Brownsburg and would also mark less than a month before the team’s most important meets, sectionals and state, begin.

It was a cold October day. The closer I came to the fogged up windows, the faster my heart would beat making my breath quicken. I step into the locker room to prepare for the pool. As soon as I step out the humidity hit me. I’ve been scoping out the competition for a few hours now and they are good. I say to my friend” I sure hope that I don’t have to race against them” . Then my name gets called and what do you know I have to go against a state winner and 6 more excellent swimmers. Suddenly my number gets called.”Swimmer's step up!”.My heart racing. Adrenalin pumping. Me trying to calm down so I can actually go. “ Swimmers ready?”...The whistle blows.

My life was changed this summer after my winter swim team received unexpected news. We were told that we would no longer be able to practice at the same pool as before, leaving all of the swimmers without a place to practice. Unfortunately, this meant that my team, the Tiger Sharks, would no longer exist. I was devastated and now forced to bring myself upon a new team with unfamiliar faces. On my new team the head coach, Coach Bill, was able to assist me in making this transition easier and he was also exceptionally inviting to me and the other new swimmers. His unique training allowed me to immensely improve my swimming.

During the swim season of my sophomore year I was at the peak of my swimming career. I was swimming great times and had a very successful season. Prior to the regional swim meet I was qualified and all I had to do was swim my qualifying times to advance to the 1A/2A state swim meet. Exactly one week before the regional meet I broke my foot in two places. I was heartbroken because for a swimmer this is what you train for all year long. I felt like all my hard work and hours in the pool were for nothing. I immediately began physical therapy and told my parents I wanted to try and swim the following Saturday at regionals. My foot was not in a cast, but in a boot. My physical therapist even told me there was no way I would be able to swim at regionals.

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.

“Eliana, stop swimming so close to the wall!” My high school swim coach would yell, at least once every practice. While being a successful high school swimmer and trying to maintain my high GPA, I have faced many obstacles. Some of them being physical barriers, like injuries, due to too much swimming, or struggles with too much AP homework, but I never expected the biggest obstacle in my high school swimming career to be the one in my head.

As long as I can remember, I have always felt passionate about swimming. Whether I’m playing around, going to swim practice, or racing at a big swim meet, I’m always at the pool. Since I spent so much time around the water, becoming a lifeguard looked like the obvious job choice for me. After about a year of guarding, my supervisor asked me if I would be interested in starting to teach swim lessons. I was apprehensive at the thought of it, because I hadn’t worked with kids much before. It sounded like a cool opportunity though, so nervously I agreed.

My plans when I get older where like every other child's. I want to be in the NFL. To get where I am you have to start at a young age. I showed up at practice everyday and on time. I also studied the play sheets and went through all my routes. I studied day and night to be where I am. It wasn't easy. There was no time to play games get in trouble do drugs or hang out with friend on an everyday bases. You have to tighten up be a man. It's not like I woke up one day and I was starting running back I had to do what's right stay in school not miss a day because that one day could have been the most important day ever and I wouldn't have even known. You know why?? Because I was and didn't show up to school. Don't be that person I used to be.

As it was my first time learning to swim, I was terrified every time I was instructed to perform a stroke. As I attempted to swim across the pool, I would desperately cling onto the lane lines and swim near the pool wall. My early swim career was plagued with failure; I was unable to perform the exit skills required to exit the intermediate level, which I would repeat three times before being able to pass (cmp/cpl). The following summer I was placed into the advanced level, yet again would repeat this level four times until I was unable to proceed levels. Disheartened, I would stopped taking lessons until I decided to swim again during the summer following freshmen year of high school. This time I was placed into pre-team, the highest level for swim lessons. Despite struggling during the first few sessions, I learned with fervor and tremendously improved my swimming, abilities, inspired by my placement into pre-team. Because of this improvement, I was eventually eligible for the club’s swim team. Ever since I have completed pre-team, I continuously swim on my own during my free time.

Many student athletes at Kennedy have played a sport throughout all four years in high school, and many don’t plan to continue their experience after they graduate. Towards the end of high school, student athletes are faced with the dilemma where the high school sport they have played, will be continued in college or parted with.

When I first learned how to swim, I was 5 years old. My family and I were outside by the pool and I was on a float in the water. My brother and dad were in the water while my mom and sister were tanning on the deck. My mom got hot and started to get in the water. My dad came behind me and flipped me. I really didn't know how to swim so i was drowning. I was trying to push myself up when my mom grabbed me and picked me up. I went to go lay down by my mom when my dad picked me up again. My dad started to fake throw me in. My mom, brother, and sister all went inside. When they got insdie, my dad grabbed me and threw me in again. I thought I was gonna die but then I started to doggy pattel. My mom came outside and started to freak out. I told

By this time I had started to go through puberty and became taller which enabled me to swim faster. The morning group was full of dedicated swimmers who were crazy enough to get up every morning to go jump into a pool and practice. Of course I was no different, but during April of that season I had started to lose my motivation. I began to skip practices and gave my parents excuses, which then they told me to take it easy. After two months of periodic practices, I realized that swimming was an activity that I wanted to do and that I loved, and I decided that I would not allow myself to quit, no matter how hard it became. When the new season started, I started to push myself, trying to keep up to the faster swimmers. I became close with my team mates as people who go through pain together get closer. We started to have more fun together from going out, to having funny conversations in the locker rooms. I also began to do travel meets where we would spend a few days together, eating, sleeping, and swimming. I spent more time out of the pool with my friends and even became romantically involved with one. Now, swimming has become one of the most important things to me, it has been the activity that has the most influence on my life. From my work ethic, sleeping habits, to my choice of friends, all of them are tied to

Regardless, each and every time, my parents encouraged to me to the pool. Over the years, I began to enjoy swimming more as I improved and gained more confidence, but there was no explosion, no breakout performance; that is until high school came around. My best event was the 200 yard freestyle; freshman year, I went from 1 minute 50 seconds to 1 minute 43 seconds. Through the guidance of my parents and coaches, I worked through the fear of disappointment only to realize that they only wanted the best from me. Holding myself accountable was never painless, human nature dictates that we stop when we are out of our comfort zone. Since training constantly involved pushing my body to the limit and beyond it was extremely easy to find excuses and justifications for not giving it my all. Winter training is especially brutal on my psyche, as I didn’t see the sun for months at a time. It takes courage and motivation to be

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