Diego Trujillo

How would it feel to wake up at 4 in the morning all year long just to go and swim for a few hours before school starts? Most people I know would never think of spending thirty hours a week in a cold pool as being enjoyable. The idea of having to balance that with school and a part-time job makes most people shy away from the sport.

For me, the feeling of cold water covering your body before the sun even comes up and the endless hours spent in the aquatic center was the norm for my childhood. I spent my formative and teenage years in and out of the pool. I started swimming for fun when I was about 3 going to the pool with my father and joined Stingrays Swimming in Marietta, Georgia. I stayed with them for the remainder of my swimming career which lasted until I graduated from high school.

I would never have imagined over two-thirds of my life being spent swimming, but I am myself because of the lessons I learned from this sport. The amount of time I had left after school and swimming made me manage my time perfectly in order to get nearly anything done. The mentors and friends I had have stayed with me for years and I still go back to them for advice. However, it didn’t matter to me how much time I poured into swimming during high school, I never saw it as a future career for myself . I took the lessons I learned and planned to use them in college, but I always knew that academics were going to carry me forward, not a sport. So when the time came I said my goodbyes to the sport I called my home for over a decade and went on to forge the next chapter in my life.