Warning Signs

Ever since I was a little kid, I envisioned myself being a star athlete. After I joined the swim team at age 7, that vision grew stronger. I fell in love with swimming the minute I joined swim team. The other kids on the team were a lot of fun to be with and the older kids on the team were inspiring and as a youngster I wanted to be just like them. I continued to swim and loved the sport until about junior year in high school. The increased work load, more challenging courses and the pressure of college made me stressed the entire year. By the time I got to swim practice after school I couldn’t focus on the practice because I had school work on my mind. Soon, I realized I wasn’t improving because I wasn’t doing my best in practice due to the stress. Because of my desire to do well in school also, I began to not enjoy swimming as I once did. And the only reason I began going to practice was because I knew it was healthy and because I wanted to stay in shape. But I kept swimming anyway, despite my lack of heart, because I didn’t want the possibility of me becoming a star athlete to totally disappear. By senior year, swim practice almost felt like a chore. I went because I told myself, “I have to go, my teammates need me at practice and my coach will lecture me if I don’t.” As a senior I was contemplating swimming at a DIII university called Stevens because I still wanted my dream to come true. But I knew deep down that I wasn’t going to be happy and enjoy my 4 years at college if I did swim. But trusted my gut and made the decision to come to VT because I knew swimming just wasn’t for me anymore and I’m glad I did.