Mom, you are unlike many of your kind. All moms are superwomen, but you, as a swim mom, have the greatest super power: the patience to sit through hours of swimming on the million degree pool deck. I just wanted to say thank you for all the early mornings, late nights, meltdowns, victories, and, of course, support these past 14 years.

First of all, thank you for getting me into swimming as a little goober. Thanks for making me one of the little kids that actually wore a cap and goggles to practice, or else we probably would have had a couple broken noses in the family. Thanks for bringing me to meets all over New York just to watch me swim 50s as an 8-year-old. Thanks for being my first coach; it's a big scary world out there on the pool deck alone.

Thanks for teaching me the love of the sport. Many people ask me why I do what I do, why I put myself through hours upon hours of hard work for just a few minutes of glory. It's because it's an obsession, it's a lifestyle, you can't stop. Thanks for being my inspiration. I've always wanted to be a swimmer, just like my mom.

Thanks for driving me to practice at 6 and 7 A.M. all summer and throughout high school; you thought I was finally old enough to get ready alone, sorry! Thanks for driving countless hours late Sunday nights to bring me home from meets far away, so I could be at school the next day.

Thank you for spending all that money for club meets and speed suits, but hey, it's cheaper than hockey, at least!

Thank you for always being there for me after horrible races, and also for knowing not to say good job. For sitting in the car with me after practice, long after we've gotten home, so I can let it out. I mean, what's swimming without meltdowns after practice on a monthly basis? And most importantly, thank you for never letting me quit after those meltdowns.

Thank you for caring about this sport just as much as I do. Thank you for taking down my times after every race and getting every relay spit. It comes in handy during the moment of temporary exhaustion blindness after touching the wall. Thank you for cheering like an idiot in the stands (start the waterworks now). You're my number one fan and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Shout out to all the extended moms I also have from this sport. The Carmichael Road Carpool service will forever be one of my favorite parts of practice (mostly because practice was over). Thanks for letting the fab four weekly sleepovers over the summers rotate to all your houses, and thanks for letting us eat all your food. Thanks for treating me like I was one of your daughters, too. It's pretty awesome getting to have more than one amazing mom.

Thanks for being there every step of the way, the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly; I don't know how you could bear to look at me, all raccoon-eyed and messy-bunned all those years. Swim moms are a league of their own; I don't thank you enough for everything you've done for me for practically my whole life. Things have changed ,now that I'm in college, but I know, near or far, you're always there in the stands in heart.