The Wildest Moment That Changed My Life

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.

I have been part of the varsity swim team for four years now, which I am now a captain of it, reached cadet chief master sergeant in Civil Air Patrol, where I soloed a plane, and other; however, these two accomplishments are the foundations of my goals.

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.

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

It wasn’t till I came on my first visit to Jewell that I was told that I actually could swim for Jewell if I wanted to, and I did want to. Coach Gole told me that if I wanted to swim for Jewell that I should probably join a club team and recommended two that were in the area, Tsunami and Club North. Two of my three high school coaches also coached on Club North, the third coach was responsible for keeping track of people who wanted to join the team and getting them into the correct place, and many of the fastest kids on my team swam for Club North, which made it a no brainer for me to request to join that team. Since my assistant coach was in charge of the waiting list, se pulled some strings and got me on Club North in November, shortly after high school season ended. At first I was overwhelmed by the difficulty of the practices compared to what I was used to, and I felt like the slowest one in my group. It took longer than it should have for me to get back into shape because I was also the manager of the girls’ high school team and I often missed practice due to the fact that I was at the girls’ meets. I paid little attention to that fact because I loved being the manager. It was so much fun to be a part of the girls’ team, to get to know each and every girl and to watch them

During my collegiate years of school, I want to make them my personal growth period. My academic plan includes an architecture major that will allow me to become a suitable urban planner/architect. In the pool, I will be a dynamic swimmer, as well as a positive and encouraging teammate. As I constantly grow physically and mentally through my college swimming career, I will become well diverse in freestyle events from the 50 to the 1650. Being a college athlete, I know the responsibility and commitment in which is expected of me. I will pursue to honor myself, teammates, coaches, and the school I attend, both on and off the

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

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 have been playing at least one sport since I was in preschool which is why when I hit the fifth grade my knees started hurting. I was over using my knees and going through a growth spurt. During that time, one of my babysitters, Rachel, was on the Santa Teresa High School Womens Water Polo team and would tell me all these crazy stories about the games she would play. I would be going to the same high school that she did so she made me super excited about trying out for the polo team that she was playing for. She gave me one really good tip of advice. She told me that if I wanted to be a really good water polo player than I needed to be a great swimmer. Within the next couple of months I joined a huge club swim team where I was by far the

It has always been a dream of mine to do what they do, to teach and coach children about swimming. These coaches influenced me to keep pursuing my dreams and because of this, I want to inspire and encourage others to do the same. The strong impact of my very first coach who I connected with early on in the season has led the six-year-old me to discover a new passion that I know will stay with me for a long time. It was the unique techniques he used while coaching that drew me into the swimming world. My first swim coach was an outstanding coach and an excellent teacher. He, without a doubt, set high standards for other coaches following him. He always motivated me to aim higher. He has inspired me in every way and has been a great influence in my life. Henry Drummond once said, “The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.” My coach did just that and I have been aiming to embark as strong of an impact on someone as he did on

Swimming on the Varsity swim team for the past 4 years has taught me many invaluable life lessons. Most of these lessons can be attributed to not only surviving, but thriving, in difficult circumstances.

It was one life-changing experience I was seven years old when I became grateful for the things that I had. I remember packing for this big trip my parents were planning for a year now. I precisely recall my mother telling me to go through my closet and pick clothes I did not use to give away, I didn't know why, but I didn't ask, I just did it. As the day got closer I remember my parents had accumulated a great amount of things to give away. I quite didn't understand why they were gathering so many things and for what reason.

By this time I had started to go through puberty and became taller which enabled me to swim faster. The morning group was full of dedicated swimmers who were crazy enough to get up every morning to go jump into a pool and practice. Of course I was no different, but during April of that season I had started to lose my motivation. I began to skip practices and gave my parents excuses, which then they told me to take it easy. After two months of periodic practices, I realized that swimming was an activity that I wanted to do and that I loved, and I decided that I would not allow myself to quit, no matter how hard it became. When the new season started, I started to push myself, trying to keep up to the faster swimmers. I became close with my team mates as people who go through pain together get closer. We started to have more fun together from going out, to having funny conversations in the locker rooms. I also began to do travel meets where we would spend a few days together, eating, sleeping, and swimming. I spent more time out of the pool with my friends and even became romantically involved with one. Now, swimming has become one of the most important things to me, it has been the activity that has the most influence on my life. From my work ethic, sleeping habits, to my choice of friends, all of them are tied to

It was a bone chilling January night; my mom received a call at about 11:15 PM, a call that changed my life forever. My Aunt June was on the other line. She was crying so hard my mother could barely understand her. Through the sobbing my mom finally understood that Brian, my cousin, had been in a horrible accident and she didn’t know how bad it was. My mother jumped out of the bed after she hung up the phone. She screamed up the stairs at my sister and me; it was a nerve shrilling scream. I could hear fear in her voice. My mom was always yelling at us growing up if we forgot to do something. She would even get us out of bed to finish something that wasn’t done completely. This particular