Personal Narrative: My Pool

There were several other people shouting as a I approached the finish line. I could no longer feel my legs as I sprinted through the shoot at the finish. When I got out of the shoot I wanted to fall to the ground but I stayed up and walked to the camp where I was greeted by all of my fellow runners.

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.

It was just a typical afternoon swim practice and the regional swim meet was almost here. We’ve been training and practicing all season for this event. Every afternoon after school we would go to the YMCA pool to practice. I’ve been working on long distance swimming, such as the freestyle 200 and 500. The night before the regional swim meet arrived, and I happened to get sick. I felt weak, stiff, and exhausted. There was no way I could do well in any event that was going to occur the next day. I took some medicine and had some tea to try and feel better. Nothing really helped. All there was to do was hope. The next day arrived… feeling sick and weak, I went through the day until it was time to go to the swim meet. As we warm up, I began getting a headache and feeling worse, yet felt like I still possessed the capability to carry on with endurance. When the first race came I felt nervous. The whistle blew and I was the last one to dive in from the block. Pacing myself slow and steady, I caught up only making third place. I felt like I could’ve gotten first place if I wasn’t sick, but I was glad that a team member got it instead of another school. The last race came. This was the most important race for me all season; I couldn’t screw up. We got up onto the blocks and once we heard the whistle we dove in. It was terrible. Everyone was in front of me and I was in last for at

My head slowly angled down at the murky brown water reflecting the bright sun as It flowed downstream. “Come on you pussy”, I heard from below. From then on, and for these three words, my fate would be decided, On that day about four years ago, i would know what fear feels like, and how confidence can change your life.

The water splashed as I entered the freezing pool of water. I swam to the other end, flipped underwater, and pushed off the wall. The flow of the water against my skin felt as if I was breaking through a bubble of air. The movement of my arms and legs led me all the way to the wall at the other end. This was my passion. It was what I loved to do at the time. Previously, I was on a club swim team, all the way up until school season. I was anxious all day waiting to get back into that pool.

We always had five cars in my family when i was growing up. One was a Cadillac, standard of the world, my father would always remind us, a jeep, an Oldsmobile, v-8 ford that was equipped with duel carburetors, and some other brand like a Packard. The ford was a convertible and usually a bright red. He usually drove the ford for calls that he made to patients in their homes, and for driving between his two offices. His morning office was in Jerico and he went to Sheldon for the afternoon office hours. It was about eighteen miles of dirt and gravel road that separated the two offices, and driving over that road about 75-80 mph in a convertible would cause great clouds of dust that covered you and everything in the car.

A very patriotic, American yet basic thing to do is go to the lake with either friends or family yet, until this weekend I have never “properly” gone camping. First, I get in the silver, petite and fuel efficient car that will be taking me to Marion lake. The car smelled like peaches and honey not to mention the ebony, hot yet sticky leather seats. The drive there consisted of acapella singing, giggling yet loud shrieks and mischievous “what are the odds’” scenarios. Rap and hip-hop was the main playlist for the sticky sweaty drive there. Our music choice rapped about beer, drugs, women, gangs and of course money.

The skies were clear and the waters were calm when we dove into the warm waters of the Gulf. We should’ve stopped at the surf shop; it would’ve avoided this whole mess. The strong currents are tossing my body around like a rag doll. I’m trying to keep my eyes on Taylor’s bright red hair, because at this point, losing Taylor means I have zero chances of survival, and no friend to work with. The waves finally seem to have calmed down enough for me to swim to the surface to get some much-needed air. I’m looking for a certain redhead, but I can’t find her. I’m starting to panic.

As the sharp red needles and small rocks stab me in the back my hard burn with pain. Looking at my hand, blood drips in streams down to my elbows making puddles of blood. My eyes wander around looking to see what had just happened. I began to slowly creep my way up making sure to not touch the red-needled ground. Muffle sounds start to come into my brain and I can make out voices of laughter. Wandering some more I can make out a faint shape of gan. I slowly rub my eyes, I can get a clearer picture with every wipe. He was rolling around holding his butt. I see brown smudges of dirt covering his pants. Two pairs of strong arms start lifting me off the muck and wipe the little needles and brown pine cone seeds off of me. I get settled on a dark

It was the day I had been waiting for all season; the ultimate test of my swimming career thus far. Sections day one had finally rolled around. I had just finished my brief warm up, and I got ready to rest before my crucial race. I threw on my blue, nylon warm up and wrapped my bulky parka around my body. I nestled on the bench next to my friend Liberty, and we began playing music to pump us up before the race ahead. I sat lingering patiently in the yellowy-lit University of Minnesota-Morris pool area as the musty smell of chlorine filled the air. I leaned back and shut my eyes to visualize my upcoming race and let the music pacify me. I was frigid as I sat anticipating the race.

Im standing in line waiting my turn to race. I am at the university of tennessee about to race the 200M freestyle against 50 of the top kids in the entire southeast. I'm nervous but excited I am prepared but worried and I am thinking of everything that could go wrong but I keep my focus. I have to it's too late to go back now. Finally it's my turn I step up on the block and I get ready, the siren sounds I jump of the block into the water I try to remember everything my coach taught me in practice everything that got me to this point. I make the first turn I am in the middle of the pack making sure to pace myself turn 2 into turn 3 I am now headed down the home stretch putting everything I have into this last stretch and it pays off 3rd place and 20th place out of 50.

This summer we got a slide for our pool. We have a pool at our house and we wanted something to add to it because it was getting kind of boring. My sibling and I, had been begging my parent for months to get a slide for the pool, and they finally agreed!

When I reached the 15 meter mark, noticing that everyone was lined up where I was, and making a split decision that I had paced myself the whole match, so I started swimming faster and faster and had a little cheer of triumph in my head while thinking that my competitors are out of gasoline. I caught sight of the wall, I

had jumped into the 8ft pool and he did not know how to swim. I looked at him for a second and he came back up and was coughing. I looked around me and saw my mom and kept yelling "Mom, Sam is drowning!" She looked like she couldn't hear me so I knew I had to jump in and try to save him from drowning. As I jumped in I opened my eyes and saw him trying to get up so I went under him and pushed him up. When he got up it was my turn to try to save him from drowning. As I jumped in I opened my eyes and saw him trying to get up so I went under him and pushed him up. When he got up it was my turn to try and save myself. At that momebt I just thought to myself, how was I going to get back up? All i remember after that i closed my eyes and felt someone

A pool near my house stays open all year round. Even when snows falls to the ground, the water remains in the pool. When the water freezes over and kids dare each other to walk across the ice. I’ve never done it, but the older boys who my brother wants to be just like all took the challenge at least once.