This is why I keep going...

Sorry folks, another post about swimming. But hey, it's all I ever do with my time. What else am I supposed to write about? ;)

Lately, I have been struggling in swimming. It's not that I have been going super slow (though there have been some REALLY bad meets), or that practices have been overly hard (but they really have...), or anything like that. I was just done. I wanted the season to be over. I wanted to stop spending my whole life at the pool. I wanted to have time to do things that normal college kids do. I had forgotten why I swim. Why I put in countless hours at the pool with the same people doing the same sets. Until today.

Today, I remembered why I swim. I don't swim because I enjoy killing myself at practice everyday, or because I like not having time to do all my homework. I swim because it's what I love. In that last 200 of the 500 free when I'm just hating life, I look over at my coach and he's patting his chest with his hand. I know what that means: "Have heart. You have to have heart. I know you can do this, but you have to believe that you can." I swim because I have a coach that believes in me and pushes me to do things I never thought I could do. I swim because I have a team who loves each other and wants each other to be their best. I swim because it makes me a better person. Going a best time, or hearing my coaches say, "nice swim" or "great race," that's always nice. And it's a great bonus. But swimming builds character and it builds friendships that last forever. That's why I keep going.