By Nicole Farina, Swimming World College Intern
In less than one year, I, along with thousands of other current college juniors, will official be able to call myself a “swammer.” Our time in this sport will soon be up, and it will be here before we know it. Some of us may be thrilled, and are counting down the days until we never have to stare at a black line at the bottom of the pool for two hours ever again. Others may feel lost without swimming, and are unsure of what to do with themselves once they’re officially retired.
Regardless of your feelings towards the end of a long swimming career, every soon-to-be swammer can be comforted with an important fact. The things that we’ve learned from swimming are lessons that don’t disappear once we graduate. They’re here to stay.
Swimming has taught us what it means to be a teammate.
Photo Courtesy: Doug Keller
This may be the most obvious lesson. Being a good teammate has complete correlation with being a good friend. We know how to be a supportive, understanding, and encouraging shoulder to lean on to the people we spend so much of our time with. While the end of our swimming careers may be the last time we’re can be an official “teammate” in a team setting, that doesn’t mean that we can’t put forth the qualities we’ve acquired into our friendships and other relationships.
Swimming has taught us to be accepting.
Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
It’s so tempting to look over at a different group during practice and think, “Their practice is so much easier than mine.” While that thought may slip in every once in a while, once you’ve been around swimming long enough, you’ve come to understand that everyone’s practice is hard, in its own way.
You can’t be annoyed the backstrokers when they get to breathe the whole time while you’re doing breath control, just like you can’t hate the sprinters for doing 50’s while you’re a distance swimmer. Just like in real life, we all have our own baggage that we carry. Accept and appreciate what others do. You do your own thing, and everyone else can do theirs. It’s important to remember this, even outside of swimming, so you’re able to be yourself without worrying what other people are doing.
Swimming has taught us how to fight.
Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
It’s been engrained into our mind since the beginning. You don’t see success in this sport if you don’t fight for it. The classic quote goes, “A goal without a plan is just a dream.”
If you want to break that record or make that cut, you’re going to have to work for it. Day in and day out, you’re going to have to grind your way through those awful practices that you swear you won’t finish when you first read them. But you always do.
When you want to beat that girl in the lane next to you more than you want to breathe, you fight for that victory. Your arms are burning, you can’t feel your legs, you put your head down from the flags to the wall and you fight to get your fingers on the wall first. If you win, that’s great. But if you didn’t, you know you gave it all you had.
Giving 110% even when you feel like you can’t finish, and pushing yourself everyday to reach your goals are special qualities of swimmers that can be used anywhere in life. Swimmers are competitive and determined to the core, and if we want to be successful, we will be successful. We’re fighters.
All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.