When I was younger, my parents made me play every sport I could just to get me out of the house, I didn’t know that at the time but looking back now I understand. They made me play every sport I could even if I wasn’t good at it. I went from playing soccer to playing baseball and then to swimming. My days would be so chaotic; come home from school, eat a snack then off the practice.
Sports for me were boring. During soccer games when I would play goalie or sit on the sideline, I would just sit in the dirt and play with worms. Soccer wasn’t my favorite sport but neither was baseball.
Back when I played baseball, my favorite things to do were to see how much gum my friends and I could put in our mouth and who could cheer the loudest. Other than that, I just crouched behind home plate and caught balls and sometimes had to make plays at 2nd base and home plate.
It wasn’t until I begged my mom to let me join the swim team that my attitude toward sports changed. I was 9 years old and knew nothing about swimming. I could barely swim one lap of freestyle, but that’s all it took to be on the swim team, one lap.
My first year swimming was a little hectic. I still had no idea how to really swim. I showed up for time trials where the whole team swims every stroke, so the coach knows what your times are. I thought it would be a good idea just to swim freestyle to start out with. Once I stepped up on the block, I knew it wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever made. Once I got up there, the announcer said, “This event is a 50-meter freestyle boys eight-10.”
As soon as I heard 50-meters, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. In swim terms, 50-meters is two laps. This was the point at which I realized I had no clue how I was going to turn around to go back the other way. When the buzzer went off, I belly-flopped into the pool and started swimming my little heart out until I got the wall. Once I got to the wall, I didn’t know what to do next, so I stopped and everyone yelled at me to keep going. Nine year-old me just started crying and jumped out of the pool. But what happened next changed me forever.
My coach came running down the side of the pool to come to talk to me and calm me down. “Don’t worry about it …, we will keep working until you’re gliding down the pool, looking like a pro. Don’t give up just because you can’t do it right now; practice makes perfect,” he said.
From barely being able to swim during the summer of 2010, I swam all year round and came back the next summer to swim and qualify in every stroke to make it to Tri-County (A meet with all the swim clubs in Camden County, Burlington County, and Glouster County all in New Jersey). In Tri-County, I ended with a first-place prize for 50-meter freestyle and sixth place for a 50-meter butterfly.
