It is a lifestyle that we chose, and it is a lifestyle that some would never change. You meet a lot of people throughout your years in school, however, the friends you make in swimming -and any other sport - last a life time. I have met so many different people from so many different teams thanks to my many years of swimming. Swimming has helped me become more outgoing, and to have a never-quit mindset.

The day begins bright and early at 4:30, when you wake up for morning practice. Well actually, you wake up that early just to be a good friend and make sure she gets to practice as well. So, with that ritual almost every Tuesday and Thursday, you become a pro at waking up early. I then go pick up my best friend (at, as she says, "an unGodly hour") at 4:43. Then, we begin the 23 minute drive to the pool, just to beat the coach to the pool by 6 minutes.

Once our coach gets there, we enter the very dark and humid pool deck just to jump into the pool. We jump in the pool, just to stare at a black line for an hour and a half. Set after set, we keep up with the interval, and what our paces are supposed to be. We keep up with how our strokes are, if they are perfect, fast or slow. The mornings are normally very lonely for myself and the few that venture out into the pool during those early mornings. After our practice adventure is over, we make our ways to the locker room to shower and get dressed. Mainly because we are motivated by food, aka the best food ever, Nana's.

After that, my best friend returns home. It is nap time, and following nap time is more food. Then, sometimes TV or school work (during the school year). Most of the time, it is just sitting around waiting to eat another snack or getting ready to go to the second practice of the day.

This time, I head to the pool all by myself to be greeted by the coach, who beats me in the afternoon. We begin with stretching and dryland. Dryland is a combination of core and strengthening exercises. We sometimes run as our cardio warm up for the day. After those glorious 30 minutes of torture, we jump into the pool again, just to swim for another two hours.

Following our two hours of swimming, we all get out of the pool and go get changed just to go home or go somewhere to eat. FOOD is our life. Well, technically swimming is, but food is a very close second. After a long day of swimming and school (when we have school), we are beat and we go to bed rather early. Just to get up and do it all again the next day.

And it's so worth it.