Swimming Monologue

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.

Competing in high school athletics was the highlight of my time at Sterling High School, If I could I’d go back and do it all over agin. It allowed me to learn basic life skills, such as time management, self-accountability, leadership, and teamwork. But the most important thing it brought me was a strong support system built up of teammates, coaches, competitors, and officials. My sophomore English teacher once joked that “the girl’s swim team is like a cult” which is pretty close to the truth. From early August to late November twenty girls, a diver or two, and a pair of coaches were inseparable. Together we suffered together through every practice and worked to improve not only ourselves but each other. It was these long hours that shaped

Stout bathers in baggy swimsuits tiptoe into the sea then launch themselves into the waves. A ship hovers on the horizon, hardly seeming to move, spectral against the whitewashed sky. Everything looks too real, too sharply defined and the colours are too bright, as if I’m seeing them after waking from a fever. The man who’d found my clothes is standing with his back to me, watching the swimmers.

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

At Emory, I feel that I could most accurately be described as a student-athlete. Academic success takes priority while I’m at Emory, but swimming is a close second. Spending hours daily in the pool, I have become a part of a tight-knit collection of academically and athletically prosperous students. Struggling through difficult sets and disappointing races together makes celebrating success even sweeter. We lean on each other for strength when we feel as if we don’t have enough individually. This team is comprised of caring individuals who work together to make the whole better than the individuals. From this community I have become a better team player and now I can add to the uplifting environment by drawing upon some of my innate qualities that make me a good teammate: I am supportive, dedicated, patient, kind, and hardworking. One of the unique characteristics of the swim team is that we don’t only work on creating a great community within the team, but we try to spread that excitement and desire for success to other communities. The swim team makes great contributions the Emory community by hosting Special Olympics every week at our pool and making appearances at many events such as sporting events and freshman move

Apart from the entertainment and joy doing them, they are imperative to my physical health. These sports have made me develop many friends and learn about different cultures. I was a member of a swimming club in my former school; here we travelled many places for competitions. During these competitions, I would try to make as many friends as possible. My choice of friends was always different races from mine, which made it a thrilling experience. I am a social and outgoing person, who always likes to learn about other people. Even though I have earned several titles as an individual in swimming, what I enjoyed most about these sports is the fact that I could meet people from different cultures around the world. Learning about these cultures also played a great role in making me study

Glass trickles onto the pavement, the flow of force bending wheels and body. My own body appears to be floating away, feel like I am sinking down into the pavement. I scream, a muffled scream, but even to me this plea for help seems distant. I am helpless, drifting away, perhaps I am drowning?

Swimming helped me to make everlasting friendships, and helped get me in better shape. I experienced the pain of waking up early for swim meets, skipped parties, and other events for swimming, but it has helped me grow in character and transform in the pool. Swimming has taught me to respect my coaches fully, and to never give up on anything in life. From my experiences, I still love swimming the same way, ever since I won my first medal at the championships when I was eight. Through it all, swimming will always be a part of my

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

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

I could feel my lungs burning in my chest as oxygen entered only to be forced back out. I push myself to continue moving my arms, pushing the water behind me so I could propel myself forward. At that moment, many things floated around my conscience. It was so intense that I felt like giving up everything I had worked so hard for: the 10-hour online-training, the initial interview, the prior physical training, and the self-determination to achieve my goals. These thoughts were embedded in my mind as I took a side breath, struggling to continue my freestyle stroke.

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.

I started taking even, deep breathes, and I felt it begin to loosen up. It felt strange; like something cold was flowing through me, through my veins, into every piece of me. I felt calm for the first time in awhile. That was when I felt something damp hit my face.

It was a swallowing net and I knew it was futile but I still floundered like Flounder out of the water

In my childhood, my participation in the swim team was actually the closest I got to seriously engaging in a sport. When I was about eight years old, I was one of dozens of scrawny kids lined up to swim for the coaches to try out for the team. Even though my backstroke took me in a diagonal across the entire pool, I made the team. As much as I had hated any activity that I quit prior to swimming, I hated swimming more. With my mom’s coercion, I managed 5 years (one of which I gleefully sat out due to a fractured wrist).