Swim

 At my first swim meet after being out of commission, I was scared; the anxiety had been building up for a few days now. What if I didn’t do well, or what if I failed? All the questions were running through my mind. After breaking my foot for two months, I lost all progress I had made in swim. Two years of hard work went down the drain thanks to one injury. But I was determined not to let this stop me. I tried working out my upper body while taking advantage of my new free time by finishing 400 volunteer hours and getting a higher SAT score. After obtaining the clear to go back to practice in November, I tried to ease back into swimming slowly, but it was hard; I was still in pain and going to physical therapy. It also didn’t help that I had finals during that time.

As winter break approached, I started training more regularly despite the physical challenges I was facing. Even though I had trained for around a month, I still wasn’t confident in my skills. I knew I had to give it my all during this competition. On Saturday, fortunately, I had one event, 50 free, one of my favorites; as I got on the block ready to race, I zoned out and focused on the water, imagining how I wanted the outcome of this race to be. Hearing the horn, I instinctively jumped into the cold water and started moving my arms like a windmill and kicking like a madman. As I flipped, I could feel my body getting tired, but this was no time to give up. I started rotating my arms and moving my legs as fast as possible. There it was; I was approaching the wall. I took my final breath and pushed myself as much as possible at that moment, and that was it. The race was over; I looked at the giant lit-up board with my new personal best on it. I was ecstatic, and so were my parents and coach. Going in thinking I would do awful, I proved myself wrong and regained self-confidence. This sport has given me a lot of pain mentally and physically, but all the body aches and tiredness are worth it for races like these.