Personal Narrative: My First Summer Swim Team

Remembering the feeling of embarrassment whacked against the side of my face as I realized that how horrendous I was at swimming. I can reflect back to that moment and say it motivated me to become such an astonishing swimmer. It began when my best friend Anthony, who also recruited me into tennis, was helping the empty swim team recruit members. Anthony was the type of person who would share his thoughts about a particular event and recommended it. “You’d be in shape for the tennis team if you join the swim team, it would also be helpful if you joined since we’re lacking people,” he explained. Participating in the swim team was one of the most remarkable experiences during high school.

After joining the swim team, I quickly made new friends with the people that were in the same lane as me. We always stuck with our lane partners since they were the

people who supported you to get through the harsh practices.

Our first swim meet was held at our pool. The lanes were divided in half amongst the two schools. We had a special warm-up regimen that, our head coach created to help get our bodies adjusted to the water as well as our stretching routine. Both teams had a set of bleachers where we sat patiently waiting for our event to be called. The last event that took place was the two hundred-meter freestyle relay. Since it was our first meet, we were paired up with people in our lanes. When the event got called, I stood up from the bleacher, looked back at my team and started walking towards the starting blocks to wait in line for our turn. Shivering from the cold air that was rubbing against my skin while I was waiting in line. I could hear my teammates from a distance shouting my name as I dove into the pool. I remember that as I drove into the water, the frigid water went streaming past my face and I felt my heartbeat throughout my entire body, thumping. After finishing the fifty-meters, clear as day, I remember the moment when my hand smashed

against the wall to stop the timer. I looked up at the scoreboard and saw the time. It wasn’t as fast as I would have expected it to be. In fact, I was disappointed in my time that I got. Looking back, I remember how the coach mentioned, “Don’t worry about the initial time you get, what matters is how much you’ve approved from this point on.” That was my motivation to do better. From that day on I tried my hardest during practice to drastically improve my swimming time before the upcoming swim meets and especially junior varsity championships. As the weekdays came walking by, we practiced until we dropped dead. The practices kept pushing us to the limits but beyond that point was improvement.
Junior Varsity championships swung by, it was held at a private school down in Minneapolis. There were many teams in the South Suburban conference that participated that day. During that day we had our usual routine for a meet, taking a shower, walking out to the swim deck and starting our warm up. This time around, there was a tense atmosphere roaming through the room, one that we all felt, nervousness. We all swam our usual events at our very hardest. Until it came down to the last event. before the last event started, the relay team started gathering up around the head coach for some encouragement. After they finished talking with him, they dispersed onto the side of the pool deck for their final stretching as the coach started to approach me. He appeared right in front of me as a giant while I was sitting on the bleachers with the team. He said, “Get up, you are swimming as a replacement for one of the relay members.” I thought to myself, Me?! Of anyone on the team he chose me to as a replacement for the best relay team we had for junior varsity. I gladly accepted the invite offer and headed out toward the started block. As we grouped together at the swimming deck and approached the swimming block. We lined up in the order that the head coach assigned us, I was the third person to swim in the relay. It was a good spot to be in with the least pressure as possible. We all stood in line quietly waiting for the buzzer to buzz, as it did a few seconds afterwards. Six people dove into the still water breaking it’s tranquility while racing towards the other end of the pool. Before I realized it, it was my turn. I got into position to dive into the pool and pushed off the starting block and dove in. With all my might I swam as fast as possible while keeping my form, slamming my legs against the surface of the waters. I took my final stroke and strided alongside the water until my hand hit the wall. Looking up, I saw my last teammate fly above me into the water. Standing beside my colleagues that previously swam, we watched him sprint across the water. It was coming close to the end of the relay and everyone was closing in from all lanes. Screaming and shouting throughout the entire room. Swimmers were hitting the wall, stopping the time one by one. When we looked up to see what we’ve placed, we learned that it was third.
All things require practice and no matter the skill level, you need to take time to improve. If you ever participate in a competition and fail initially, practice hard enough, you will get better.