Just Keep Swimming |
In fourth grade me and my best friend tried every sport imaginable but could never find one that I really loved or was good at. Finally our moms signed us up for VSC (Vancouver Swim Club). This is when I fell in love with the sport of swimming. I was actually good at this sport which helped with my excitement. But fifth grade year I had to stop swimming over the summer because my family was planning on going on a vacation. I planned to re-up once the school year started. But that’s when I heard my best friend wasn’t going to do it anymore, and I became scared to it without her because I thought I would be all alone. As days and months passed I figured that all the other kids improved a lot while I was gone and thought if I went back I would be the slowest one there, the loser, so I didn’t sign back up. This is now a huge regret of mine. Three years past and I never got in a pool and lap swam.
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It was now freshman year of high school. My parents both were trying to push me to go out for the swim team. But I said no. I didn’t want to be bad, or last. Joining Heritages High Schools swim teamed like the scariest thing I could imagine, being jugged, being embarrass, I didn’t want anything to do with it. But my parents force me to do it, saying it would be fun and a nice way to meet people. I still remember the fear in me as I walked the locker room the first day. But lucky for me there was another freshman girl walking in at just the same time as me, just as nerves as me, so we stuck together. I got into my suit and grabbed my cap and goggles. And walked out onto the deck. They separated us into three groups, club swimmers, swimmers who were on the team last year, and the new swimmers. As all the swims left to go to the outside pool, while the freshman swimmers stayed inside and swam for one of the couches. We were doing a 25 IM order of ever stroke. I pushed to the back of the line hopping to go unnoticed. As my turn came up I got on the blocks and tried to remember what I learned in fifth grade. Butterfly, the hardest stroke first. I dove in when I heard the whistle. And swam, I remembered every stroke perfectly. I climbed out of the pool with scene of accomplishment. That’s when the cough pulled me aside. Great, all I wanted to do was go unnoticed but that didn’t work out to well. But what she said surprised me. She complimented me on my form and speed asking if I was on a club team! I told her I wasn’t and she moved me and a few other girls up to varsity! I had a blast that swim session, meeting new people, swimming again, it felt right. The session sped by and soon it was over. I got my varsity letter as a freshman that year, and was awarded “star freshman”. I was thankful to my parents for pushing me out of my comfort zone.
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Soon enough sophomore years rolled up and swim seasons was on again. After that season I knew I could not stop and wait a year to swim again. I wanted to join a club team. But the same fears came, I wasn’t good enough to join a club team, what was I thinking! But I knew the longer I waited the harder it would get so in February I joined the Tornados swim team. The first day was hard, but I pushed through. Swimming is hard, it’s hard to love it in the moment, when your whole body’s in pain and you have on oxygen. But once you finish you set, you get the best feeling in the world. Swimming had pushed me, to the limit, even to tears once, but you push through. "A swimmer does...more yards than football players, more sets than volleyball players, more kicks than soccer players and more flips than cheerleaders, and more laps than a runner”. And we do it without oxygen. It literally uses every muscle in your body. I am so glad I joined the team. Now I getting great work outs, and doing what I love. I have gained not only a healthier life style but a healthier body. And we don’t just swim for two hours six days a week; but we also have land practices, running, and interval training for a half hour after practice. You have to be devoted and love what you’re doing. I love swimming because after you dive into the pool, it because all about you, and how you can push yourself to the next level. How far your body can go, but when you get that best time, it’s all worth it. If you swim right and really push yourself you shouldn’t be able to get out of the pool right once you finished, you should need a minute at least, to hanging over the gutter gasping for the sweet precise air. But like we say, oxygen is overrated, right? |