Personal Narrative Essay About Swimming

I am a competitive swimmer, I train 9 times a week and swim before and after school. when i have a swim meet ill be at the pool for up to 60 hours a week. Waking up and jumping into a freezing pool at 4:30 isn’t generally my idea of fun. Sometimes i hate it, but mostly i love it… being committed to a sport teaches us time management, resilience and dedication,

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.

Imagine taking one step into a chlorine-filled arena. The humid air rushes onto your skin. An immense smile spreads across your face. This is because you know everything is about to change. In less than 24 hours you will be holding a glistening gold medal in your hand, standing up on the podium while the Star Spangled Banner blares for the whole world to hear and tears will stream down your face. Taking one look back at your coach, Teri McKeever, you realize if it wasn’t for her you would not be here. Graciously, you run up, swing your arms around her body, and embrace her in a powerful hug that says it all. Swimming is a very intense sport and consumes every second of a swimmer’s free time. However, putting in hundreds

I woke up nauseous, too sick to eat. The whole drive there I was praying it would be cancelled. The fear consumed me; I couldn’t move. I just wanted to be home in my warm, comfy bed, instead I was diving into an ice cold pool. After warm-up my coach gave me a pep talk, but I was too nervous to listen. Sometimes I got so nervous I’d throw up, right before my event. To this day I still don’t understand why I got so anxious at swim meets. For the past several years, I have had a love hate relationship with swimming. I always struggled with swimming, and many times I wanted to quit. The time commitment and the physical requirements have always been a little too much for my mind to handle and it all comes to a crescendo when it is time to compete. I often wondered why I continued to put

“Get up now,” My mom yelled down the hallway. “Hurry or you’ll be late!” My brother and I dreaded waking up early to swim, but we had chosen to commit. Even though I’ve competed every year since first grade, I still struggled. That summer swimming taught me to have stamina, the ability to not quit even though it was hard.

When it’s lacrosse season, I know I have to make sacrifices and manage my time wisely. It is important to me that I remain dedicated to lacrosse when I make the choice to play because I not only made the commitment to myself, but more importantly to my teammates and to my coach. Swimming is another activity that exemplifies my dedication. I have been swimming on Three Village Swim Club since I was 10 years old. There is no doubt that Three Village requires the highest level of dedication. With deciding to continue to swim each year, I commit myself to practice 2 to 3 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over the many years I have been a team member, there were definitely times I wanted to just quit and give up, but I knew this was something I loved to do and I would have to overcome the hard times in order to continue doing what I loved. Swimming allowed me

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

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.

I first joined the Kearney Swim Team as a sophomore. At that point in time I didn’t really want to swim, but my parents had already signed me up and told everyone that I was joining the team, and I felt that I had to hold the commitment that had been forced upon me. The first day of swim camp I was so scared that I wasn't going to know anyone and that I was going to be terrible. I remember begging my mom to let me go home, but of course, that didn't happen and I was left to fend for myself amongst the other swimmers.

Joining a team with kids ranging from five to eighteen, it can be hard. It seemed as if everyone already knew each other. At first, I felt like an outcast, but not for long, once I proved I could swim fast. It took time learning names and getting used to the practices, but in the end my entrance into this group was easy compared to the practices I had to go through. The coaches, swimmers, the swimmers’ parents became my second family. We all believed in hard work, having fun, and racing when the time came. Our norms were putting in the effort when swimming and if you did, it would pay off in the meets. Slacking off was never rewarded and always sanctioned. Either the coach or your parent, or both, would yell at you, which distracted others, which could ultimately cause you to be kicked out of practice for that day. Although I never got kicked out of practice, I was given the infamous nickname, Snax. It was not necessarily a bad nickname, it came about because I had a habit of always having snacks. We all got nick names from something we had done or just because. My best friend was Yugi, because his younger brother had called him that, my other friend we called squid; it was just part of the culture of being on the

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.

Sometimes I find myself wondering why I put in so much effort for this sport. But, then I remember what motivates me most to continue swimming everyday. I love the sport. I love to swim. It has been a part of my life for so long, and I have no idea what I would be doing without it. During the one week in December that I was out of the pool, I realized this fact the most. The girls I get to swim with during high school season are my best friends. And they all motivate me to work harder every single day. Personal goals push me along with team goals. The amazing opportunities and memories this sport has given me are incredible, and that motivates me to reach the next level of swimming. The swimming program is very difficult, and often times my body gets so exhausted that I cannot imagine swimming another lap. But the happiness I feel after every practice, my teammates that are always there to support me, my amazing coaches, and the family like feeling that both my high school team and club team have created makes swimming so fun. This motivates me to never give up on the sport that I have always

I thought to myself “What if I’m not good enough? What if I dislike it as much as I remember? What will the Lyman Hall kids be like?” These worries only lasted until I opened the front door of the school, because I was greeted by many familiar faces. I shook hands with the captains, Victor Jacome and Robbie Driscoll, whom I had known from my previous swim team. The first practice was very difficult; in years past, I would have considered it to be very mild and easy, but I hadn’t tried to swim in a competitive manner in a very long time, and even after a couple laps, every muscle in my body ached. This was a very foreign feeling to me because I hadn’t felt this way since I first started swimming when I was 10 years old. At the peak of my conditioning when I was around 14 years old, I could swim a full mile, or 66 laps at a competitive pace, without stopping, and I would feel fine. However, like riding a bike, there is muscle memory involved, and after a few more practices swimming started to feel more like I remembered it. Despite this, some things still felt different; I changed a lot in 2 years: I grew from around 5’8 to 6’1 and went from very scrawny to somewhat a normal amount of muscle. These physical changes were beneficial to my swimming of course, and I felt myself traveling farther in the water with each stroke, therefore being more efficient. When swimming

13 years. It has been 13 years since I first plunged into the pool to begin my first lesson. I was small, skinny, and shy at the time, not willing to talk to people. I had tried other sports; baseball, soccer, basketball, but I found those to difficult. My dad first brought me to a pool, to splash around in the play area. But I soon found myself wanting to go the deeper parts where the whirlpool and the lazy river were. So I began group lessons on the basics on how to swim, most of the other participants were older than me so I did not make conversation with them. After I finished a couple of lessons and learned how to swim the most basic two strokes; freestyle and breaststroke, I joined a summer team, the Bradley Farm Wave. I was not very