Just Keep Swimming (7)

As I grew up, I quickly found out that I was not the most coordinated of children. I played a little soccer, tried out a little volleyball, dilly-dallied in basketball but seriously I could not catch on to any of it. I wasn't the worst one on the team but I just was not improving and my lack of coordination came as a struggle. I realized that I didn't really have a passion for those sports, so I did not really find reason in trying to perfect them. When I was about 8 years old my best friend (who also happens to be my roommate now) was an awesome swimmer, and her mom suggested that my mom put me on the summer swim team. There was only one little problem. I didn't even know how to swim. I entered the swim team and when the coaches saw the lack of ability I had they decided to place me with the 6 and under age group. Ouch. But throughout the season those coaches pushed me and by the end of my first summer, I was able to make it all the way down the pool and I even got the award for the most improved swimmer (wasn't very hard considering I didn't know how to swim in the first place haha).

A few more Summers passed and I continued to participate on the community swim team. I really enjoyed it, but I was by no means the fastest one. As I was entering 8th grade a family friend suggested that I try out a club swim team. I really enjoyed my summers on the swim team so I decided why not? I ended up joining the Aces Swim Club of Colorado and let's just say, all of those kids on my team had practically been swimming since they had been out of the womb. I had to try out to find out where I should be placed at the beginning of the season, and they considered putting me on the team with kids who were generally around the ages of 8-10 years old. Talk about a blow to the confidence. They decided that solely because of my age they would place me in a higher group, but I was still definitely one of the older ones in the group. When I began that season I started as one of the last swimmers in the lane, and just trailed behind others but as time passed by, I miraculously caught on to the whole swimming thing. And I caught onto it quickly. 

It seemed that every few months I was being moved up in my level on my club team and as I continued to push myself hard, I became one of the top swimmers on the entire swim team. It was fascinating to me that I was now swimming with those kids who were multiple levels above me when I joined the team. When i returned to my summer swim team that next summer, they were all amazed at how much I had improved.

When I entered my Freshman year of high school I decided I wanted to be on the team there so I joined and surprisingly just after that one year on the club team, I was one of the top swimmers at my school. By my sophomore year of high school I was able to qualify for the 5A State Championship Swim Meet in Colorado. As I put hard work into my club swim team and my high school and summer league swim teams, I was able to really improve and I saw that improvement with every time I was able to drop. As my times got faster, I was able to move up in my ranking in the state both my Junior and Senior year of high school. I even got the opportunity to race against Olympic Gold Medalist Missy Franklin (no... I did not win...)! It definitely was a test for me because it was hard starting out at the very bottom of the group, but it showed me that with hard work and dedication, anything can be accomplished. Swimming was such a great blessing in my life because i made so many friends and learned so much about dedication and hard work.

As I was striving to get better and improve, I just always kept the good ol' Dory quote in my head "Just keep swimming".

Senior recognition night 

My relay team for my last State Competition 

P.S. I apologize for how scary looking some of these pictures are... swimming is not the prettiest sport haha.