High School

     I remember at the end of eighth grade how everyone was talking about what they each thought high school would be like. We all believed that it would be challenging but that overall we would have a lot of fun over the years to come. As we started high school I remember going to each of my classes and seeing how each of my teachers were really friendly and always wanted to do whatever they could to help you learn. This made the whole transition to high school a lot easier since everyone was so nice.

    Over the years I made many new friends, most of which I had met on the swim team. I remember on my first day of swim team I went to George Harris’s room to find out what time I would have to go over to the pool for practice. He had told me to go to practice at 1:30 to go swim during the junior varsity practice. When I arrived at the pool we were all introduced to the different swimmers and we got to know the coaches. Once we got in and started swimming on of the coaches pulled me out of the water. He asked me if I was on a club team or not and I told him that I did swim for a club and that I had actually swam for almost my entire life. He then basically told me how I was too fast for the junior varsity team and that I would have to come back later for the varsity practice.

    I was excited that I would be on the varsity team as a freshman.I went back to George’s room afterward realizing that I had more then an hour to kill. When I got back to his room I guess he was a little shocked and upset to see me back in his room and not at practice. He asked me why I was not at practice and I told him that the coaches told me to come back for the varsity practice. He was a little shocked since he new that it meant I would be on varsity. He began to ask me for my different times of the events that I swam. When I told him my times he was even more shocked then before. I had to go through it all again and tell him how I swam on a club team and how I had been a swimmer for the vast majority of my life.

     I really enjoyed being on the swim team to begin with and it made me even more proud to know that I was on of the only freshmen that would go varsity four years in high school. I continued to swim for my club team and continued to become a faster and stronger swimmer. During second year of high school, I finished of a great season by placing in all of my events. Later at the swim team banquet I was given a trophy titled the Iron Man trophy for being able to do anything that the coaches threw my way. I became on of the fastest swimmers on the team and one of the fastest in our league. 

Throughout my entire high school swimming career i began to get become a much better swimmer while still being able to have a lot of fun at the same time. I began to see how if there was something that i wanted to accomplish weather it be in school or in the pool, swimming had made me more determine and focused. I began to see how I saw everything as somthing that was always possible if you just put your mind to it. Setting goals in swimming for my different events also taught me how to set goals in general that helped me overall. As a swimmer I was not able to only grow and become a better swimmer and a better student but a better person as a whole.