Personal Narrative Swimming

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.

The first swim team I joined was a local private pool team, five minutes from my house. After the first week of practice, I was hooked. My first season I made many friends and learned I was not an awful swimmer. The next year I grew bigger and stronger, and became better at the sport. In summer swimming, there are three championship meets, Divisionals, All-stars, and Mid-Caps. As a five year old, in my second year of swimming, I made it to Mid-Caps, in a relay. I did not medal that year, but it taught me that I had to keep working vigorously to achieve my goal. My goal was achieved when I was eight, when I achieved first place in the twenty-five backstroke. As I progressed to higher levels of swimming, including high school, I experienced the true meaning about swimming.

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.

It was sometime around 6:00 p.m. on a Thursday night in the middle of January 2016. There was a swim meet going on and it was just about to start. The teams were warming up and getting ready for the meet that was due to start in the coming hour. I was warmed up and concentrating on the race listening to music in my newly acquired platinum studio beats. The music was loud and the nerves were setting as I walked into the locker room with my friend and teammate. As we passed I said good luck to our teammate who I was racing against in the 200 free style. Then out of know were he pulled my friend to the side and whispered something in his ear. I didn’t hear what was said as I had continued to walk. My friend came over to me and I asked what he had said and he told me. He told me

My story begins on the boy's varsity swim team for Hilton High School. Before beginning the season I had taken a two-year break, so I was quite rusty and out of shape. At the beginning of the season, I had a hard time getting breathing patterns back and making sure my technique was good. I would be negative and tell myself that I could not do it or I would tell myself that I was too fat to be a swimmer and I should just give up. But every day I seemed to walk through the pool doors to begin another day of practice. The first meet of

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

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

I swam on a year round swim team for eight years. I absolutely loved it. But, in tenth grade I moved to the highest level group on my team so we practiced before and after school. I would wake up at four in the morning, go to practice, go to school, go back to practice, and then arrive home at six in the evening. I then had to eat dinner, finish homework, and work on orders. With the volume of orders I was receiving, I did not have enough time to make the orders in a time frame that was fair to my customers. My business was more important to me, so I had to stop swimming. I still, however, teach swim lessons on the weekend and am still on the varsity swim team at my school. During the summer, I am also the head coach of a neighborhood swim team with seventy kids.

A large number of swimmers don’t like it, whether that be because of the sheer difficulty, or because swimming makes them anxious, or because they’ve simply been swimming for so long that they are no longer entertained. The last option is the one that seems to hold true for most club swimmers who no longer find joy in the sport, the ones who have been doing it for five, eight, even eleven years. Those are the people who are simply tired of it. I, on the other hand, love swimming and the feeling of gliding though the water. People will tell you that no one, in any sport, really enjoys practices, but I can honestly tell you that I do. For at least the last five months I have looked forward to swim practice everyday. If nothing else, I know that I have an outlet for my anger, frustration, or any other emotion that I may have. At best, I know that I have a group of friends who are all working to achieve the same goal as I am and that I can always lean on them for support and they can always lean on me, if need be. The feeling of swimming a good race is one of the best feelings in the world. When you can tell that you're just flying through the water and you have everyone’s attention and you know that you're better than you were the last time you raced, better than you were yesterday. I guess maybe that’s the thing I like about practice, that everyday I’m

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

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

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 started swimming when I was about three years old at the local park district. At one of my lessons, I argued with the instructor and refused to go underwater. My instructor became so frustrated and impatient with me that she forcibly dunked me underwater, unexpectedly. I can still remember the fear associated with being dunked; that same fear has influenced my choices in so many ways that people cannot understand. I refused to go in a pool for three years after that day and my argumentative nature left as well. Then, in fourth grade, my fear subsided at one of my friend’s practices. I remember watching the water glisten and knew that I was meant to swim, so I did. I promptly went home, shocked my parents by joining the swim team, and I have been swimming ever since, but it has not been easy. I swim in spite of fear…until an inexplicable feeling of panic that rushes over me and I become three again. Anxiety has prevented me from racing, even this year, and my

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