You are a 7th grader on the Seton Swim Team.
Not only is it your first year at Seton, it may even be your first year at school.
Maybe you’ve swum for your summer league team, or maybe you’ve never swum competitively at all, but swimming for the big, bad perennial champion high school team is a really big deal for you. You may even find it intimidating – you may be worried that you will never be good enough.
But you came out for the team and are starting to find your way. You are starting to see yourself getting better, and you are starting to build a little confidence. You’ve made some friends, many of whom are on the swim team.
The Coach puts you in an exhibition relay with some upperclassmen. They are much bigger than you – you look up to them. It seems like it will be forever before you will be as big – or as good – as they are, but you hope the day will come.
You may be nervous because you’re never quite sure when your relay event will come up – so you find them on deck early to make sure that you don’t miss the event completely and let them down. The Coach might be mad if you miss your event, so that adds to your worry.
You are entered as the last swimmer in the relay, so you stand by the blocks and cheer for the big boys on your relay while they swim, nervously awaiting your turn. When the time comes, you step up on the block – it seems so high – can’t I just dive from the deck? But what will people think? So you climb up and when your teammate comes in, you muster the courage to dive in.
You swim with all of your might – all you hear is the splashing of your stroke and all you feel is your heart beating harder. You finish the race – I did it!
Then you look up and the other swimmers on your relay are already gone.