The End

So this isn't going to be a swimming post for the first time ever!! And it will be the last post ever!! If you are wondering why I am even writing this is because this entire year has been an assignment. For my honors english class we have had to wright a specific amount of posts all year. So for this last but not least post I would like to take some time and reflect on what not only I have learned but what you may have learned about me this year.
To begin I would like to say the my first post was horrible. I couldn't spell or type for my life and I had no idea. I had no idea how you write grammatically correct sentences but who cares about the small things. Thinking back and reflecting on my writing I see how small my world was: swimming, food, sleep, repeat, with a little bit of school stuffed somewhere in that zone. Not saying its a bad thing but I do believe I have grown since that first post of my blog. There is not way I could have know there were other people out in the world who I could interact with (I am a swimmer after all). I had not a care in the world and I loved it. But I think that though out my posts I started to think wider and wider because of not only the people I've met but the places I've been and the things I've been able to do at those places. At the beginning of the year I just kind of wrote ever day off like a check off of a calendar, ever meet off like it was nothing. But after going to compete in Texas at Sectionals, I am not sure I would even remotely do that anymore. Not everybody gets to go to something even half as big as sectionals if they qualify for it, and I am deeply indebted to: my parents, coaches, and my friends. they have gotten my this far, they have helped me grow. Now I want to show you guys that I actually have grown.

So to leave this off I would like to say goodbye. To tell the truth the hardest thing for me do do is write what is on my mind so to say another goodbye one of my visiting "inner demons" I will leave you with an article of Hunter S. Thompson's last words here.

Photo courtesy of Zazzle.com  

Swimming and the Attitude

So you probably heard that micheal phelps got "sidelined" by USA swimming for drinking and driving... maybe not but what you might not have heard of was how he made his come back. To sum it all up he essentially had a eye opening experience at a alcohol rehabilitation centre. The first time anyone saw him since the day he got arrested was at a big meet that happened not to long ago. He showed up in a full beard (kind of protesting that he didn't need to train for this meet... he won by the way). He was really an amazing person and definitely showed he could be a great guy.

Photo Courtesy of wtaq.com

This is a story that most swimmers could go though. We are not the nicest breed (might be the chlorine, I don't know) but we have a lot of heart. We have the heart to not just stop when we've won but to keep going because we know we haven't really won yet. Nobody has, and nobody ever win because life is to short to win everything. If someone not helps us get to a place of peace ( not just telling us how but showing us) we can be really nice people. We can do that for one another in our swimming community because almost all of us have the same sarcastic personality. We know one another, not personally, but just by being and competing at a swim meet really shows who you are. "Show you hot you drive and I will show you who you are." Thats a great quote from my favorite movie, Fast 5. It not only shows that people can know each other from being together but by being around one another.