As the whistle blew, I felt adrenaline pumping through my veins as I dove into the water. I was somehow shocked by the coldness of the water even though I’ve done hundreds of dives in my lifetime, so I didn’t think this would be any different but I get shocked by the ice cold water of the pool as I swam. I felt determined to finally end in first place at my final swim meet of my youth. As I did my strokes through the water and did my flip turn, my foot slipped and I wasn’t able to push off the wall as strongly and as fast as I had wanted to.
Regret filled inside of me as I heard the congratulations from my coaches mouth, but disappointment shone from their faces They were disappointed that I didn’t end first but proud that I had worked hard for years to get to the point at which I am.
Water has always been an escape, The weightlessness and quietness when I‘m underwater is comforting.
The pool or the beach is where I feel best From swim lessons when I was a young child, to advancing to the swim team as a young adult, most of my accomplishments are from the pool. From working so hard to shave mere seconds off my time at meets and competitions, to getting up before dawn to go to early morning practices when it was still cold out, I met some of my closest friends who I now consider family.
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They’re the people who I laugh in joy with, and cry out of frustration with. Some familiar arguments between coaches and teammates is definitely about shaving time off at competition or that we’re panicking over our swim caps ripping right before warm- ups or misplacing your goggles, which actually happens more frequently than you would imagine Being on the team shaped me to be work harder and push myself to the limits for both my teammates and myself. It taught me a sense of responsibility because [ can only blame myself for a bad time on relays and slowing my lane down during practice, I have nobody to blame but myself on my faults, so thatjust motivates me to work harder and become faster than I would‘ve imagined.
The weeks slowly leading up to championships were the worst by far. The team knew that we had to get our act together and to stop fooling around at practice, but somehow the complaints and scolding from our coaches weren’t enough to whip us back into shape. As the days passed, everything became more and more nerve wracking and all of us got more and more nervous as time passed As the day of championships quickly approached us, all of the nervousness that we kept bottled up inside us for the past several weeks poured out We were all shaking from both excitement and sheer terror. As our alarm clocks rang that morning at 6am to wake up and head to warm ups, we all wanted to die from exhaustion, but we kept pushing through the morning grogginess and got ready to head to the meet. We were all so tired and sleep deprived, but we were all excited that all of our hard work would have finally paid off.
The pool always gave me a sense of home and it’s where I go when I’m stressed out or happy. The pool is my happy place and it‘s a place where I made friends and family. It‘s where I made some of my closest friends to this very day and who I am proud to call family. I feel like when you’re at practice, you’re either good, or you‘re not. You can‘t lie about your times and how fast you are because everything is timed and your coaches will know if you’re trying to pull something on them. During practice once, this girl who was younger, about 11 or 12 tried to say that she came in first in our lane of about three 15 or 16 year olds and turns out, she skipped the last lap and everybody noticed and the coach ended up calling her out and lecturing her that she can’t be lazy and skip laps because she will never get any fasten.
What I love most about my home is who I share it with. With people from swim team, I can just sit there for hours on end and we don’t even have to talk. We just enjoy each other‘s presence and somehow, I feel like that’s enough, We don’t have to go places, or buy each other stuff. We can just lay there on my friend‘s trampoline and lay with each other and enjoy the beautiful day outsider A quote I found by John Ed Pierce is, ”A home is a place you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to get back to,” I feel like this quote is extremely relatable because we always complain about how much work we have to do during practice or how long each set is and everyone always says, I want to go home, But once the season is over, everyone says, I want to go back I relate to that fully because I always dread going to practice or meets, but once I officially aged out of the team, I realized that I loved it there I had friends who I saw everyday and coaches who I looked up to like second parents, but once I’m gone, I can’t really go back.
Senior night at banquet, when we were passing out awards and celebrating the people aging out this season hit me hard, It made me see how tight of a family we were and I would be leaving home and potentially not being able to come back. With my fellow teammates, I am home and I wouldn’t want it any other way, Even though we get extremely competitive with each other and even though sometimes we hate each other for it, the team is the tightest group of friends that you’ll ever meet. We treat everyone like family and we wouldn’t dare let anyone or anything come between us, Having this team as a family is a blessing We love each other and argue like siblings and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if I hadn‘tjoined the team. I probably wouldn’t have my best friends who I’ve come to love and majorly respect with all of my heart, Even though our friendships may not always be full of laughter and smiles, I’m glad all those emotional times were spent with them We automatically go to each other when we’re sad or even when we’re full of excitement over something that has happened We may get fed up or frustrated with each other sometimes, but I wouldn’t want to get fed up or frustrated with any other people. Thanks for being my home.
Adrenaline Dive Shocking Cold Water. (2022, Oct 23). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/the-things-i-loved-most-about-home/
