New Trier Swim Club Scholarship (What has swimming meant to you?)

I would be remiss if I said that my swimming experiences are not among the most important in my life. It’s an activity that I’ve done for so long, it pretty much defines me. Many of my friends are also swimmers. The only two jobs I’ve ever had have involved teaching kids how to swim. I have four swimming stickers on my car. I’ve even used swimming to write school papers. If I couldn’t say I was a swimmer, my personal description would be incredibly boring. As such a demanding and time-consuming sport, my life revolves around it. When I found out I could be a New Trier Swim Club coach, I jumped at the opportunity. I’d been swimming for so long it seemed like the next logical step. Coaching with Dan reminded me of being coached by Coach Dan and practicing at the Palladium. I remembered being a ten & under and learning basics with Al. Back then I thought how awesome it would be if I could swim for the rest of my life, though perhaps not as hard. Nowadays I still feel like swimming forever, and I don’t mind working hard considering all the hard work I’ve managed to do between the ages of twelve and seventeen.

I was once talking to one of my school friends idly about colleges, and where we might want to go. He said something that at the time sounded rather insulting, but I realized was rather true. He noted that I placed equal effort into both school work and swimming. It felt odd to realize that my primary concern in life was not a spot help exclusively by my school work. I suppose that swimming has so many different components that it rivals what should be, in many opinions, the most important.

When deciding between Carleton College and Colgate University, I chose Colgate. Not because it’s a better school, it’s slightly worse academically, but because it has an amazing swim program, and it’s Division 1. Of course I’m scared, but I’m also excited, because maybe I’ll finally become more than just a “good” swimmer. I want to be great, but more importantly, and unrelated to college choices, I want to always be a swimmer. When I talk to adults who say they “used” to swim, I feel sad. Why stop? I realize now with all my health problems—mainly diabetes—that if I didn’t swim I would either be dead or close to it. There are so many little things I enjoy about swimming, that it would be tedious and probably near impossible to write them all down. I did make myself a promise over the past summer though, that I will swim as long as I am physically capable of such. After college, I will join Masters Swimming, and a long time after that, maybe I’ll even try the Senior Olympics. All I know is that swimming is so pivotal in my life that I make decisions around it. I can’t think of anything else I do that is so important. The weeks, and once or twice in my life, months that I have gone without swimming have been some of the most depressing and unrewarding times of my life. Swimming means I will stay healthy. Swimming means that I will have friends close enough to be family. And swimming always means that I will have something to show for my hard work.