When you join swim team in high school, for those four long months that the winter sport lasts, it becomes your life; whether you like it or not. You find yourself waking up thinking about the meet that you have later, or debating whether you can fake an illness to skip practice. Though I only did swim team for two years in high school, I remember all of these things, and current or past swimmers can definitely relate.
1. The pool water being absolutely freezing, and adjusting your cap and goggles as you stall getting in the water...and your coach yelling at you like:
2. Let's talk about how hot the cap, goggles and one-piece suit combo makes you look by the way...
3. Experimenting with the swim caps...stretching to see how far they'll go, filling them with water and flinging them, and most importantly, finding someone on the team who can put yours on you the best.
3. Completely dying after a couple sets and "going to the bathroom" to skip a round of practicing flip turns.
(got water in my nose every single time)
4. Jumping off of the diving block and your goggles coming undone so your eyes are blinded by chlorine saturated water and you spend the next five minutes coughing it out of your lungs.
5. Being on the diving block and being feeling like everyone is silently judging how you dive into the water. (There's always that one kid who smacks the water every time).
6. Thinking about what you'll do after practice/how much food you'll eat. And you won't even feel bad about it because you'll burn all of the calories.
7. Doing the breaststroke in front of a someone and hoping they're not looking at you underwater (you can see everything from behind...everything).
8. Being in the pool and seeing something horrifying, like a giant ball of hair, or a bandaid and silently cringing.
9. TOE CRAMPS!!!
10. It being common for the guys to shave their legs.
11. Hearing your coach say that everyone has to do a cool down with a stroke of choice and feeling like you've seen the light at the end of the tunnel.
12. Having to explain to people why you smell like chlorine all the time. Literally if you sweat it smells like a pool.
13. Also having to explain to people that you're not on a synchronized swimming team and that it's actually a big difference.
14. Hearing kids on club/really competitive swim teams that are on your swim team as well tell everyone about how they had practice at 6 AM that morning and then had to go to practice again after school and contemplating their sanity. Bless their hearts.
15. Getting out of the water and sprinting to the showers, trying not to step in any of the puddles that have formed along the concrete of the pool. You don't know what's in there...nobody does...
16. Being completely naked in the locker room and thinking nothing of it.
17. Going to bed that night and sleeping like a baby, and being sore the next morning.
18. Realizing how much you love swim team.
