By Emily Mlynarek ’14 | Features Editor

After swimming competitively since the age of 5, I can’t count how many goggles I’ve lost, caps I’ve ripped, and suits I’ve worn until they were all but transparent.

For twelve years, it’s not like anyone has ever told me I had to swim. I just kind of did, even on the days when I dreaded going to practice and complained all the way through. At the end of every summer swim season, there was never a question as to whether or not I was going to continue in the fall. And after the fall season ended, I jumped back in the water every winter. It’s just always been that way.

I’ve had my brief encounters with other sports: soccer, volleyball, track and lacrosse. It’s not that I was terrible at these sports, it’s that I neither loved nor hated them. Even though I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with swimming, looking back, there must be a reason why I stuck with the sport.

It wasn’t the fact that I loved chucking myself into a cold pool at 5 a.m. or the excitement I got from staring at that black line at the bottom of the pool for hours on end. In fact, I would often stare at that line during a long set with one lingering question on my mind,”Why am I still here?”. Then I would get to the wall and look around at all my teammates and think, “Oh, that’s why”.

It’s hard to keep track of how many lifelong friendships I have made in the pool. There’s the “Lane Six Crew”, the “Mermaids”, the coaches who have served as my mentors, and those adorable underclassmen who have never failed to put a smile on my face.  Looking back, I now realize that there is no way I could have stuck with the sport without my teammates by my side.

Although I wanted to quit so badly at times, I am so glad I stuck it out. I am proud of how much I have improved over the years, and I am even more thankful for the lessons I have learned through swimming.

I really don’t know what kind of person I would have been without the lessons this sport has taught me. If I never had to force myself to practice every day, I would not have developed the work ethic I uphold today. Although I dreaded two and a half hour daily practices and six hour meets, they helped me learn invaluable time management skills. Lastly, in this final season, I learned to step up and be a leader.

Although my last swim season did not go as expected, I am so thankful that I stuck it out. In this final season, I have gained so much patience while putting up with less than pleasant people and less than pleasant situations, because who knows how many of those I’ll come by later in life. From the disappointments, challenges and losses I have faced this season, I’ve learned to take life stroke by stroke (not forgetting to kick) because everything will turn out fine in the end.

This entire last season, I focused on just trying to make it through without quitting. I definitely regret not working as hard as I could have, and that reflects how little my races improved. However, I finished the season strong. I am proud of myself for sticking with something for twelve years, and now that it’s over, I am not sure whether I’ll miss it or not.

I am fairly certain that the competitive swimming part of my life is over. But hey, you never know… A few years down the road I could be that annoying old lady swimming laps at the pool during the summer, yelling at ambitious five-year- old mermaids to stay out of my way.