Reflection Paper

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

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.

On September 6, 2017, I were documented for an incident that involved a University Housing policy violation. I was charged with violating the University Housing Alcohol 1.2 policy. With my violation, came consequences. I met with The Residence Conduct Coordinator to discuss my actions and came to the conclusion that I would have to schedule a meeting with The Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center (CADEC) and with that, a reflection paper.

Once I was afraid of bodies of water since I did not know how to swim, now I am in love with any activity that has to do with water. I was raised in the Dominican Republic, a caribbean island, where it is customary to throw one’s child in the deep end of a pool so that their natural instinct of swimming is awakened. I was not the case. My mother pushed me to the water and amazingly enough I did not panic. Instead of panicking, I accepted my fate and sunk down. After about 30 seconds in my cousin dove in a took me out. Once out of the water, I began to panic. Consequently, I began crying, shaking and screaming at my mother for throwing me into the pool. Shortly after that my mother placed me in swimming classes and everything changed.

Thesis/main topic – Learning how to swim is essential for being around water, it will help strengthen a person confidence, improve your physical fitness, and provide an area for stress release.

I opened my eyes at the bottom of the deep end and saw water swirling around me. “How in the world will I ever reach the top?” I thought. I repeated Emily’s words in my head, “You can do this, Clover, You can do this Clover, You can do this, Clover!” I did what years of swim teaching at Daland had taught me. I pushed the bottom of my feet against the bottom of the water.

While everyone else treaded and paddled in the water, I was sent home because I was screaming uncontrollably, holding onto dear life nearly ripping the skin off my swimming instructor. I have never liked being in water. I never went near it. I was even scared of standing on the wooden planks at Pier 39. I was embarrassed when my mother signed me up for swimming lessons again when I was in 8th grade. I was the oldest and the tallest student in the entire group, but I was eager to learn. I took a deep breath and submerged myself into the chlorine-filled water. After three months, I was able to dive and swim in freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly

I have taken my passion of water to deeper levels as an AAUS D30 Research Diver with advanced open water, rescue diver, and Nitrox certified. I became an open water diver

This paper begins with my own existing knowledge of swimming, followed by questions that I wanted to find out in my research that were answered in my paper. It then gets into my research and what I found out while conducting my senior paper. After that is

As a teenager, my passion for marine biology ran rampant in all parts of my life. I went as far as becoming a certified open water diver to further understand what lay in the depths of the water. However, obtaining the certification wasn’t as simple as putting on a diver’s suit. Gliding through the water, scuba divers make the sport look effortless, however there is a sense of strength, dexterity, and health that is required to be successful. As enthusiastic as I was to gear up in scuba-wear, I was just as afraid as I descended into the cold environment. My body was getting colder and colder. I could feel nothing but

In the short story “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessig, the main character Jerry teaches the reader that you can achieve your goals if you put dedication towards them, because he puts his time into exercising his lungs so he can stay underwater, and he also does not give up even when he does too much and his nose begins bleeding. “Again and again he rose, took a big chestful of air, and went down. Again and again he groped over the surface of the rock, feeling it, almost hugging it in the desperate need to find the entrance”. (3) Jerry, the eleven-year-old boy, wanted to discover the beach in the water as much as he possibly could. He wanted to be just like the boys he discovers.

Growing up, my family valued experiences over material possessions, a lesson my parents learned from their parents who immigrated the U.S. without jobs or living arrangements. When I was only three years old, my parents took me to the public pool and gave me my first swimming lessons. My chubby limbs splashed around as I tried to keep my head above water. With practice, I began swimming competitively when from the age of 10 until my junior year of high school. I enjoyed the competitive nature of the sport and performing simple movements against the resistance of the water. Under the water there is a serenity and calmness not subject to the laws of gravity. When I was forced to stop swimming competitively due to my rheumatoid arthritis, I found

After the first year in my community college, my older brother recommended me to join a swimming class with him over the summer quarter. I hesitated, despite knowing that I cannot permanently escape from learning how to swim in my life. Thus, I took the challenge to get to swim.

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

The next part of the training turned out to be the toughest. We were required to dive ten feet to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a ten pound weight. Once the weight was brought to the surface we were supposed to tread water for two minutes while keeping the weight above the water line. This appeared to be simple so I dived in, expecting an easy time. I had no trouble getting the weight to the surface and proceeded to tread water with a feeling of undoubtable success. But once again my anti-floating physical quality began to take effect. At one minute and thirty seconds I began to sink and within the next fifteen seconds my head was submerged and I was fighting for air. The water from the pool began flowing into my mouth with each desperate grasp for air; it felt as if an ocean were draining into my body. I remember hearing from under the water the instructor's muffled voice counting down the last ten seconds of the exercise. When it was all over I slowly made my way back to the pool's edge where I was informed by the two young girls that they had no difficulty