Imagine this. You wake up at 6 a.m. (or earlier) to go to your swim meet. On the way, you sleep the entire time. You get to the pool and you can see the pool. You already know, it will be the coldest water you've ever imagined. It's your team's turn to warm up, but who is going to be the brave one that jumps into the cold pool first?

Swim team gave me so many great memories. From the friends to the coaches to fun Friday's. That's right, fun Friday's. Where we raced each other to get Gatorade bottles from the deep end and got treats after practice. Pretty much the best day of the week.

Practice was a struggle. The coach was always yelling at kids for not paying attention. We'd have to stand in line in the hot sun while we waited for our turn to swim. Which is where we got this AMAZING tan line from our one-piece swimsuits. Somehow that tan line seemed to last all the way into the dead of winter.

At swim meets, of course, there is the cold weather to remember. But who remembers “Eat My Bubbles." Sharpies with our event numbers all up our forearm, which kind of made us look cool. Or so we thought.

We'd get to the swim meet and wait for them to hang up our event numbers then go running from our sleeping bags to the fence where they were posted. We'd then all fight over who got the sharpie next, just trying to get our numbers then get out of there.

There was always that one kid that would false start. Then there was the OTHER kid that would swim his entire race after someone would false start and have everyone yelling at him to stop. It was funny until it was you who either false started or swam the entire race without knowing about the false start. But before a race, there was always the long wait on the benches with your heat. Holding your little pink or blue slip just trying not to get it wet.

There were swim caps that would pretty much rip our hair out. And somehow, someone managed to fit an entire person into a swim cap. I still don't understand how that happened. Those swim caps were very stylish. Every year there would be someone with a cool new swim cap that we all wanted. I would just like to thank our parents for taking the most embarrassing pictures with our swim caps on.

There were the people who could swim the butterfly really well and we kind of thought they were superhuman. Everyone had their own stroke that they were good at but the people who swam the butterfly seemed to have it all down. Like I said, superhuman.

And the heat ribbons. There was no better feeling than getting a heat ribbon at the end of your race. But all in all, my most favorite thing about swim team was the family. Swim team created its own summer family. We always knew that the pool was our home away from home. And as we get older, we realize that swim team did leave a big mark on our lives.

I hope this article gave you a little swim team flashback!