Narrative essay outline: in this narrative essay, I want to talk about my relationship with swimming. It will start with all the sports my parents had me play as a kid, 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. You will see this throughout my story. I was not too fond of soccer or tennis, but I did like the cardio, so my parents made me try swimming. At first, it was great—the

 kids on the team were much fun. Then we had our first competition, and it was amazingly, my parents were so proud of me. From that point on, I became a swimmer. I cannot remember anything about swimming in elementary school except that most of my old swim teammates were leaving, but new people started to join, and I wasn’t alone for very long. In 6th grade, I began to dislike the sport. It became tedious, and compensations were not as fun. 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 did not play a sport. But at the time, it still bothered me a lot. I became a much quieter kid unless I was around my friends. I still will not consider myself a victim of bullying because I fought back, and I would say some nasty, mean thing. I’m not happy with it.   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 so no one would see me. The people on my varsity team were terrific. I hung out with the older kids, like the juniors and 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 modern and boring to me. 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 lock to miss the sport. When I realized this was when I would have to decide whether o miss zed this was when I would have to decide whether o miss the sport. When lockdown was finally over, I started to swim again, but with only an hour of practice because of COVID-19, 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 it was worth it. When varsity season came around, I was ready. I placed 15th in the states in my junior year. States was wonderful, I started to appreciate the sport truly. 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 at the beginning of my senior year., At the beginning of my senior year, I realized that this was when I had to decide whether choosing this best would allow me to enjoy the sport and have time for other things. 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 in my relay, and one of my events was disqualified from the race for undeliverable reasons.

 First, the relay was DQ because I was wearing a cap with two American flags on it, which was illegal. I supposible 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. It would have been the make-or-break decision of whether swimming in college was a good idea. This only motivated me to try even harder. This was no longer about proving something to my parents but trying to prove something to myself.