So I was swimming in my pool the other day when my mom and dad both said to me, “You should've been a swimmer." That is probably one of my biggest regrets in life -- not swimming competitively at a young age. Ever since I was young, I loved the water. My family can be the first to tell you that every time we go to the beach it's a struggle to get me to come out of the water. It’s honestly where I feel very relaxed and comfortable.
All throughout my childhood, whenever I got the chance to go swimming I would. Like in middle school I was part of the summer SACC program, which is a program for kids who have parents that work during the summer and don’t really want to have a babysitter. So in this program we would go on field trips on certain days, and one of those usual field trips was the pool. I would go straight to take my swimmers test to be able to go in the deep end and dive off the diving board. Even when it was time to leave, I didn’t want to get out of the water.
This may sound off, but I actually love the smell of chlorine; don't ask me why I just do. It’s probably one of my favorite scents. Whenever I’m in a pool, I pretend I’m a competitive swimmer and see how fast I can swim to the other side or even see how long I can hold my breath underwater. The one thing I haven’t mastered is opening my eyes underwater because it burns.
Now, this is something I wish was a thing. I wish that when I entered the water, whether it be a pool or the ocean I would spontaneously grow gills so that I can be like a fish and just swim for however long I want underwater. I wish I was like that boy in the movie who actually turned into a merman. My spirit animal I always tell people is a otter because they're so cute and they move so fluently through the water.
I regret not joining swimming at a younger age because when I entered high school they had a swim team. I was reluctant for a few reasons. One being that I never swam competitively and I would've been creamed by the more advanced swimmers. Another being I wasn’t really comfortable with my body, at the time, to take my shirt off in front of people. The last thing that stopped me was probably the biggest turn off for me. That was that the practices were at like five in the morning and then you went to school two hours later. I’m not that much of a morning person so this would've been awful.
So, all in all, I wish I would've became a competitive swimmer at a young age because I love swimming and I’m very passionate about it, but I just never had the drive for it like other people. If I could go back I would definitely take up the sport.
