Alexander Gorzula

Instructor Peter Camilleri

Eng 170-28

September 8, 2023

 

Narrative essay, A Feel for the Water

I have been swimming for almost a decade and have qualified for many high-level meets, and for most of that time, I was not too fond of the sport of swimming. Before I swam, I played many other sports, which included tennis and soccer. Tennis was frustrating. I would be on the brink of tears after each match I lost. I did not care about winning or losing; It was about not disappointing my parents. They did so much for me.  I wanted to prove to them that all their hard work was not in vain. Even with this mentality, I still found it hard to enjoy and play the sports I was signed up for. When I played soccer, I sat in the goal, picking flour. For tennis, I purposefully ignored my coach so he would make me run around the court. I was not fond of soccer or tennis, but I did like the cardio, so my parents made me try swimming.

Swim was what I needed in my life. It was a fantastic outlet. The kids on the team were a lot of fun to be around. I still had problems paying attention because I talked a lot, but my coach was more lenient than the previous ones. Then we had our first competition, and it was terrific. My parents were so proud of me. From that point on, I became a swimmer. I can’t remember anything about swimming in elementary school, except that most of my old swim teammates were leaving, but new friends started to join, and I wasn’t alone for very long. In 6th grade, I began to dislike the sport. The practices became tedious, and compensations didn’t have the same spark as when I started. Many of the kids in middle school also bullied me for swimming. They did not consider it a sport. Ironically, most kids who criticized me didn’t play a sport. But at the time, it still bothered me a lot. I became an aloof child unless I was around my friends. I still will not consider myself a victim of bullying because I fought back. I said some nasty thing I’m not happy with. Ignoring them would have been better, but the situation got worse by engaging in it. My confidence improved once I joined the varsity team, but I would still sneak into the pool, hoping no one would see me. The people on my varsity team were terrific. I hung out with the older kids, the juniors, and the seniors. I loved these kids and will swim with one of them this year on the new Paltz.

The sport of swimming was still very frustrating and tiresome. I had no passion for it and would have stopped if it were not for my family and friends. Then, my wish came true: COVID struck, and everyone was locked down. I would be out of the water for months, and all I would do was play video games. I hated it, but COVID taught me something about myself. I loved doing physical activities and was even beginning to miss the sport. When lockdown was finally over, I started to swim again. This revived my passion for training, and competing seemed new and exciting. But with only an hour of practice because of COVID, I was not training optimally, so I had to make the tough decision of switching teams and leaving my old friend and coach behind.

My new team was excellent. I quickly made friends, and the intense practices lasted much longer. Swimming took much of my time because it was an hour and thirty minutes drive there and back, but this was the sacrifice I wanted to make to further improve my skills in the pool. It was worth it; I was ready when varsity season came around. I placed 15th in the states in my junior year. States was beautiful; I started to truly appreciate the sport. At the beginning of my senior year, I realized this was when I had to decide whether I would be swimming in college. It was a hard decision; how the season would play out would decide whether or not I would swim in college. However, senior year was not over yet. We trained for several hours a day for states. This would be our classes last year and mine as well. It was a disaster. One of my events and relay was disqualified from the race for undeliverable reasons.

First, the relay was DQ because I was wearing a cap with two American flags, which was illegal. I supposedly left early for the second DQ, but they mistook me for the kid on my right. Something about swimming is once an official makes a call. They can no longer redact their decisions. This was devastating, and This was the last meet together on Varsity. It would have been the make-or-break decision of whether swimming in college was a good idea. Even with such a dreadful outcome, This only motivated me to try harder. This was no longer about proving something to my parents but trying to prove something to myself. I decided that I would continue swimming at Suny New Paltz.