By Aiko ’23
To preface, this isn’t a how-to on being a top-level student athlete at HW, or an amazing tale of how I became a varsity swimmer by ninth grade. This is more about recounting the seventh-grade decision that I appreciate even more with the hindsight I have now.
I didn’t “have a sport” coming to HW, nor any extracurricular that I was absolutely, incredibly, outstandingly passionate about, or good at. And despite the fact that a lot of other people were in the exact same boat as me, I somehow thought that every single person at HW had their act together and knew what their two main extracurriculars were.
Well, spoiler alert, that was very much not true. But I didn’t know that at the time, so I almost didn’t sign up for the swim team.
On the bleachers in late August at the start of seventh grade, the coach said something about how there would be five meets in the two month season. I turned to the girl next to me, and said, “well, I’m not going to go to the meets.” She looked at me a bit strangely, and kindly pointed out that the whole point of doing swim was to compete in the meets. This was foreign territory to me, and I felt a shiver run up my spine.
I was in the slow lane during practice. I don’t think I was the slowest, except in breaststroke, but I was decently slow, and for some reason, I didn’t hate that as much as I thought I would.
When I made the daunting decision to show up to a meet in a swimsuit, I was worried I’d make a fool of myself. I don’t know if I was decent, below decent, or what decent even is. But by the time I hopped into the pool at Oaks Christian at 7 a.m for the championship meet, I was decent by my own standards. The previous four meets had prepared me for the expected nerves of this one, and I had built up a confidence in my improvement that enabled me to take a deep breath before getting on the blocks.
The sheer adrenaline, the feeling when you hit the water and are completely submerged, the way your brain doesn’t need to think and your blood feels electrified as you glide through the water is otherworldly. Seeing my time improve and almost forgetting where my stamina was two months ago was inexplicably gratifying.
Swim was the first time I held confidence in my athletic ability, and the first time I was able to be so immersed in something that was fulfilling in and of itself. I’m not going to be a varsity athlete, get recruited to swim in college, or break records (I’ll leave that to the truly passionate), but the sport and the experience was enough. I promise you, the more you try at HW, the more you will get from our community. Even if you don’t love the first thing you try, whatever you feel a tingling itch to start, try it, and just see where it takes you. If I could tell anything to my 7th grade self, it would be to feel the fear but do it anyways. And that’s what I will leave with you: let yourself dive headfirst into anything that interests you. Let yourself find little fires of passion, little communities amidst the big, and enjoy every moment of it.
