I started swimming when I was around 5 years old, and I swam competitively all the way up to high school graduation.

When my swim teacher told my parents that the best thing for me to do was join a competitive swim team, I had no idea that it would become such an integral part of my life, for a time anyways. I joined a swim team in Lake Forest, California where I lived at the time. I think it was called SET Swim, whatever that stood for. I don’t think they exist anymore. It wasn’t a great experience by any stretch of the imagination: there were a lot of other kids swimming, and the coaches were either too enthusiastic or didn’t care at all. One of the coaches was an ex-Marine, and I remember him making us attempt handstands as punishment.

The craziest thing that happened while I was at that team was when I slipped and hit my head against the shampoo laden floor tiles of the communal showers because the kids before me had been playing slip and slide. I hit my head so hard I had to get staples put in at the emergency room.

After I moved to Georgia, I immediately joined another swim team. This one was called the Southern Crescent Aquatics Team, or rather humorously, S.C.A.T for short. I spent most of my swim career swimming there. I steadily improved for a while until I eventually started to plateau in speed. It’s not very encouraging, practicing for somewhere around 10 hours a week and not improving. Nevertheless, I continued to persevere. My goal at this point was to join my high school swim team, a goal which I accomplished almost immediately thanks to my prior background in swimming.

My journey in the aptitude of my swimming is worthy of being mentioned. The stroke that I was so scared of swimming as a kid, butterfly, became one of my primary strokes as a high schooler. I was a butterfly swimmer not just because I was good at it but because it’s the noble stroke to swim, one that others shy away from, but a stroke that needs to be swam, nonetheless. A relay always needs a fly swimmer, and the team needed me in individual events.

Being part of a sports team is a unique experience, but one that I would recommend. My time on the Starr’s Mill High School Swim Team had ups and downs, but in the end, I don’t regret it. Despite that, by the end of my time as a swimmer I barely wanted to swim in a pool again, let alone race.