Ever since I can remember I have spent most of my time at a pool. Whether it was during the summer months when my brother and I would ride our bikes over to the local pool and meet up with our friends and spend all day in the water. Or when I actually started swimming on a team because someone suggested to my mom that I apparently had some talent for it. Even when my days of swimming competitively myself were over I stuck around and helped coach a High School girls swim team.
There is just something about it when I enter the pool and I get that first whiff of chlorine that makes me strangely feel at home. I could never quite get used to cold water especially when it was way too early in the morning to be awake anyway, but that first dive into the water when all the noise around you magically disappears is something that I have come to love.
Swim has been an important part of my life for more than twelve years now and I cannot imagine it being any different in the future. Some of my fondest memories as a teenager include swim in one way or another.
Not only did I learn how to do the perfect flip turn, or how to improve butterfly so I could drop another second on my PR. Swim has taught me so much more than that. I was lucky enough to have two incredible coaches that helped me navigate not only through meets but also how to deal with life in general.
It was them that taught me that with enough willpower, determination and hard work you can achieve anything you put your mind to. Putting in those extra yards in the pool, coming to practice early or doing home workouts really did show me what a difference I could make in achieving my own goals.
After every practice, my second coach would tell each individual swimmer to make smart decisions. It might be because he repeated that sentence over and over again that it stuck with me to this day. But I think it not only applies to swim but to pretty much any life situation that you might find yourself in. Back then it brought us closer together as a team because we were all giving our best and wanted to contribute positively to the group dynamic.
When I started coaching I realized what a difference this positive reinforcement could do for teenage girls that were trying to figure out their place in the world. Building up their self-confidence and seeing them succeed not just at meets when they swam a new best time but also when they became incredible individuals outside the pool, was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Swim has been there through it all with me and even today when I want to clear my head, I find myself putting on that cap and goggles. There's nothing in the world that a good swim can't fix.
