For 7 years of my life, I swam competitively. I started off in age group when I was 10, and in high school I swam for my school all four years. High school swim season was always simultaneously the best and worst part of the year, but it’s an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. It’s been over a year since I swam my last race, but I still think about swimming every day, and I want to share the lessons that I learned from the whole experience.

1. You’re not going to be the best. And that’s okay.

Growing up I was that annoying kid who was good at basically everything she did--except for swimming. It took me quite a few years of swimming to realize that no matter how hard I worked, I was never going to make it to state or win every race. It’s a hard thing to accept that you’re not going to achieve what you’ve been working towards for a long time, but coming to that realization is both maturing and humbling, and it lets you have more fun with what you’re doing.

2. The friendships that you gain through sports are unlike any other.

You spend so much time with the girls on your team, you end up with a crazy-close bond that feels like you went through boot camp together. The girls on my team saw me at 5 am and at 11 pm; we complained together about every practice, and celebrated every win. On our team the underclassmen would get "big sisters" and the upperclassmen would have "little sisters", and my little sister from my junior year is still my best friend to this day. Although there was an expected amount of drama on the team, I came out of swimming with a few friendships that I know will stick with me for the rest of my life

3. Your body can do way more than you think it can, and pushing it to its limits is so rewarding.

Just going to be honest--for most of my life, I was fat and unathletic. But once I got to high school, I (and my mom) was amazed at how hard I could work. Going from an 8 hour school day straight to a 3 hour swim practice every day, and then on Fridays straight to a football game, and waking up every Saturday for 7 am practice, while still doing homework and having a social life, seems ridiculous to me even now, but it’s something that I did for three months out of the year for four years. Not to mention that despite not being all that great, I was still an okay swimmer, and was strong and able to make it through grueling practices every day. Nothing really compares to that exhausted-but-satisfied feeling of eating your weight in leftovers and then collapsing onto your bed after a hard practice.

4. You can have fun and work hard at the same time.

It’s pretty universally accepted that swimming is hard. Endless laps and sets, as well as dryland, running, and weights takes a huge amount of effort. At practice, it’s easy to fall into a funk, and be generally pissed off the whole time about how tired you are, how much homework you have to do afterwards, how annoying everyone is, and how hungry you are. But that’s a miserable existence. Swimming taught me how to make my own fun. Bantering with my coaches in between reps, singing loudly during kick sets, and running with my best friend, judging the houses we ran past every Saturday, was what got me through swimming. Being able to keep a sense of humour and keep my mood up even when I’m physically and mentally drained is a super important skill, and one that I don’t think I would’ve learned without being in a sport.

Ultimately, I firmly believe that swimming in high school was one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life. I encourage every young person to find a sport they love and stick with it, and everyone who was in a sport in the past to look back and appreciate how much it did for them.