Why I Love to SWIM!

I've heard the story so many times that sometimes I actually think I remember it happening. My older brother was on swim team and I as the younger sister wanted to do everything he did. My dad was helping out with his age group, and so every afternoon, I went to the pool with my dad and brother and played while some 8th or 9th graders watched me. I kept telling my parents that I wanted to be on the team. Finally one day they told me I could join the team when I could swim the length of the pool. What my parents didn't realize was that I could almost do it already.

Most of my childhood memories involve the pool, whether it be swim practice, candy bar relays on Wednesday nights, meets on Thursdays, or just hanging around during intersession, my friends and I were always at the pool.

I remember the first time I ever did a flip turn, I was about 5 or 6, it was in the fall and a cold night. We only had outdoor pools. I was swimming with the older kids because there weren't many younger kids who swam in the fall. I had been trying and trying for several days and finally, I did it, I remember Mr Boudreau getting so excited, and some of the older kids too. I was so proud of myself.

Swimming was something I was pretty successful at.

I remember in the second grade we were doing a drill called block busters when I dove in, my thumb got caught in someone else's suit straps, and it was dislocated. I remember that it didn't really hurt, it just looked really weird. My brother road his bike two blocks home to get my dad, who raced in the suburban to get me, and take me to the emergency room. I remember the ambulance ride to Dhahran because they couldn't reduce it in RT. I remember siting in my swimsuit freezing and begging for a fiberglass cast, so I could still swim.

Two weeks later I was granted my wish, a fiberglass cast it was, and patiently my mom used an air compressor and hair dryer to dry it out every night after practice.

My mom loves to tell the story of the day I was swimming at the national meet, I had already swam in the regionals and qualified for nationals, cast and all. I was up on the starting blocks and some lady in the stands said "look at that poor girl, her parents are making her swim with a cast on."
My mom replied "Don't kid yourself, if I had it my way she would not be up there, and I would not be spending every evening trying to dry that thing out."

At the end of the spring season, we always had the "fun meet" where we did all sorts of fun relays.

I think we were trying to hop down the pool and try to keep the hat dry.

The older kids had to push a watermelon covered in Crisco down the pool

I know that there are some horrible coaches in this world, I have seen some in action, but for the most part, I was blessed with some awesome swim coaches who encouraged me to push myself. They spent countless hours working on timing sheets for meets, setting up for meets, coaching us as we swam. I am so grateful for all the time and energy they expended on me and my teammates.

During the 1st Gulf War, otherwise known as Desert Storm, swimming was actually the only thing that was a constant in my brothers and my life.

By the time I was in about the 7th or 8th grade we occasionally did doubles, swimming in the morning before school, and again in the evening.

When I went off to boarding school and everything was new and different and I was on my own as a 15 year-old, again, swimming was my constant.


In high school doubles weren't really occasional anymore and I am pretty sure that there were times when I wasn't actually awake.

And yes it's true, that after a lot of daring and joking from my high school coach, I did in fact shave my head.

It grew back, and I can now cross that off my bucket list.

After high school I decided to take a break from swimming. What I thought would be a short year or two break turned into ten, and then last spring I started swimming again with a local triathlon club.

And I was reminded of the peace I experience as I put my head down and go, back and forth, back and forth. One of the things I really love about swimming is that I get to spend time alone in my thoughts. Swimming is relatively mindless for me, I don't have to pay attention to much. There is no one yelling my name, or asking for this or that, or trying to talk to me about something. Or if they are, I can't hear them.

Everybody

Needs

To be alone

in their thoughts

sometimes