I spent over four years of my life in the bow of a racing shell. I was the first to cross the starting line, the first to cross the finish line, and the first person in the boat to end my rowing career. The first strokes I took during the summer before eighth grade were the gateway to some of the best days of my life so far. I gained more knowledge with an oar in my hand than I ever gained from a pen. More success came to me on the racecourse than in the classroom.

Perfect practice makes perfect.

Some say that practice makes perfect, but after rowing for over four years, that's just not true. Just because you practice the stroke a lot doesn't mean that your stroke is perfect. It just means you practiced the same thing over and over again. Making a change is supposed to feel different, that's why it's a change.

You don't have to be a captain to lead a team.

I wasn't even nominated to be a captain during my senior year. I felt robbed in every way possible since I knew that I loved this sport and I wanted to show the team how much I really cared for the sport and my teammates. I obviously got over the feeling of being left out of the captainship, because there are more ways to lead a team than being the captain. I could teach the novices what they needed to be doing without being asked, I could give the other boats words of encouragement and knucks before they headed onto the racecourse, I could stay after practice and load the trailer after everyone else had left, and I could still be a leader without the title of captain. Being a captain means being responsible, intuitive, kind, and respectful. Not being a captain doesn't mean you can't have all those same qualities. You can still lead a team without a title, and that's just what I did.

You can be overqualified for a seat and still not make the boat.

I've been in this position. I had the score, I had the form, and I had the heart to be in the first boat. But someone else had something special about them on their rowing resume that made our coach choose them over me. I was devastated, but it only forced me to work harder, longer and better than them the next few weeks in order to get the seat I wanted for the championship season. Now I know that, in the future, if I don't get a job based on my resume that someone else fit the position better so I need to find a different way to improve myself so I can get the job I want.

Similarly, you can give everything you have in a race and come up short.

My junior and senior years were disappointing, to say the least. My boat was in top physical shape, we had the horsepower to win, but when it came down to it on race day, we didn't end up winning the state championship. I can tell you about every detail of those races and I can tell you that my body has never been in that much pain in my life. We left it all out on the water but that didn't mean we would win. The effort we put in can't be denied but just because we put in everything we could doesn't mean that we would be the fastest crew or the best crew on the course.

Your team will be where you meet your best friends.

After spending four years with the same people, you're bound to become closer to them than anyone else. I have friends that are older than me and we are still the best of friends even though they went on to college before I had finished rowing. I talk to some of my old boat mates on a daily basis, and those are the friends I'm most excited to see when I come home. After seeing them every single day for two-thirds of my high school career, not seeing them every day is incredibly sad.

If you truly love the sport, it will love you back.

I loved every aspect of being a rower, from the long practices to the work over the summer to the soreness after a 2k to long bus rides with singalongs you could never replace. Every moment of pain was worth it after the thrill of a win at a race. Bringing home the victory cups from races during the season and throwing our coxswain into the river were the pride and joy of the season. My sophomore year we got to throw our coxswain into the river four different times, and that season was when I realized how much the sport had changed my life and how much the girls that rowed with me meant to me then and how much they mean to me now, as my rowing career has ended.

Here's to Simsbury Crew and everything it has done for me. Thank you to all of the coaches and older teammates that showed me what it was like to be a part of a team that takes pride in its community aspect and top to bottom success. And a special shoutout to the Golden Girls of 2014, the class of 2015 and the class of 2016, and all of the people on the team that I left behind when I graduated. I wouldn't be the person I am without you all.