I spent four years completely dedicated to my high school sport and despite missing out on some things, I would not have taken back the many life lessons and values that I gained from the long hours spent representing my school.
I personally believe that the best thing I learned throughout my participation in high school athletics would be time management. I am a swimmer which required many hours of practice throughout the week and on weekends. We often had practice before school and then for multiple hours after, as well. It was also necessary that I needed to maintain good grades which meant staying on top of my homework. There were certain times where I had to put a lot of my social life to the side to make sure that everything that absolutely needed to be done, was. Within the time management skill I picked up also came organization. I often missed school for meets, and if I had not stayed organized and managed my time in the ways that I did, I could have run into different problems with my grades.
Going along with time management and organization, came responsibility. It was vital that I was communicating with parents, teachers, and coaches what was going on in my life so that everything stayed as stress free as possible. Especially when I got my license, I was responsible for making sure I got to practice on time no matter the time of day.
Throughout athletics the value of hard work became very apparent. My definition of success also was formed. With putting in 20 hours a week into something, hard work meant giving my all in the pool and out to make sure I was the best I could be. There also were times that the hard work didn’t pay off as much as I wanted it to but that didn’t mean I wasn’t successful. There were so many other things that I had learned and picked up throughout the season that made me successful in a different kind of way.
High school athletics also taught me to handle disappointment in a classy way and how I can go about fixing the problem so it didn’t happen again. There were so many times where I didn’t hit the times that I wanted, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t a good swimmer. It just meant that the timing might have been off and that it wasn’t worth giving up on my goals.
The different ways I learned to deal with others and work as a team also is something that I will carry into my future. Swimming isn’t as much of a team sport as football or basketball, but there were still times that in order for my team to get better, it was necessary that we all push each other to be better swimmers and better people. There were never situations that everyone was in agreement for everything and the ways we came together to get our problems figured out were very important in making sure we were successful.
Lastly, high school athletics gave me such a pride in my school and the different situations I was given to represent it. There was something about knowing that my successes contributed to something bigger that meant a lot. Being able to wear the same name on my cap for four years is something that I will cherish and remember long into my life past high school.
