Every time I compete at a major swimming competition, I learn something new. What I learn is not from my peers or coaches nor is it swimming specific. No, swimming has lots to relate to real life. Even just as a sport I teaches me the importance of various things. However through all those races and competitions, there is one thing in particular that has impacted me in a major way. Ever since that experience my thought process has changed and most importantly, I have changed.
I remember with vivid detail the time of my prime. I was a top swimmer and could not handle losing. It was a bright and early Sunday morning. The sun glared down at the windows, the smell of chlorine all around and parents screaming on top of their lungs in the stands. It was time for my race as I stepped on to the wet rubbery starting block. I told myself “this is an easy win”. My heart began to beat rapidly as the starter said “take your marks, Beep!”. I hastily dove in the aqua blue, near freezing water.
I started to rapidly kick my legs and push my arms through the water then swinging them in the recovery phase of the stroke. I was leading the race, almost a body length ahead of the swimmer beside me. The end wall was getting closer so I sprinted using every last drop of energy my body could dispense I reached for the wall as I quickly glanced at the crowd. The faces of suspense and jaw dropping were all I could see. Anxious to look at the results, my head turned to the one sided jumbotron.
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Too my amazement, I was… second? Suprised of what ! just saw, I popped off my goggles and stared at the jumbotron carefully. There it showed, for the first time in my career did I lose a final race. Tears quickly flowed from my eyes, the sense of disapointment filled my heart. I was stunned, unable to move. I hit the scorching hot showers and I look down to the ground in awe. I stood there thinking critically for 15 minutes in the showers before my skin was burning.
An epiphany has token over my brain. I realized that there are always people better than you. The only way to be better than your peers is to work harder and realize perfect people don’t exist and that losing will only increase my work ethic to inspire myself to be the best I can be. To this day I still live by those words. Once a boy who was arrogant, now behaves in a much more contained and hard working behavior. Thanks to swimming for all the life lessons it taught me, now it is possible to not only be a better swimmer, but a better person as well.
