Personal Narrative: The Sullivan Blue Dolphins

Water has many different smells. There is chlorine, salt, lake, fishy, and well of course drinkable. The one I will never be able to get out of my nose is the chlorine. In sixth grade, I was a member of the Sullivan Blue Dolphins. I wasn't that good at swimming, but I'll never forget the swim meets. Especially the one at the Red Bird Aquatic Center.

Your typical indoor swimming pools still have diving boards, a secondary kid pool, dressing rooms, the launching stands, and a lot of storage space. Red Bird had all of this and more. It's a huge building made of brick that water stains tend to make brighter, with a tall white ceiling that stretches further than an eye can almost see. When you first walk in the smell of chlorine is so strong your eyes almost water. Well, it's either the chlorine or the chilliness. Off to the left there was a thermostat that my team decided to read; fifty-three degrees. I have never done the cold water plunge, but I had

We walked between the two pools to a balcony on the other side fenced off with a rotted garden covered in snow and a leaf blower. My coach laughed when a guy followed us out and used the leaf blower to blow off the snow. You could hear the beeps and buzzes as well as the loud windy sound from the blower and chilly wind itself. Thirty degrees with wind standing outside in a swimsuit and thin sweats like normal was not my idea of fun, but when the guy turned on the heated matts we were standing on I didn't mind as much.

After stretching, we went back inside the main pool area where we warmed up more by swimming laps in the JV pool. Compared to the outdoors, the pool was warm. However, it was also about the temperature I like drinking my water; ice water that is. We swam a few laps, practiced our starting dives, and went over the competition order all by or in the JV pool. Soon enough, the competition