Personal Narrative-Swim Analysis

“ Now, do three sets of five 200s of IM…On the top. “ These were the orders Coach Ross Bohlken Sr. spoke as our last teammate swam to the wall. It was my junior year of high school and my last year of being in the swim team. I remember being tired of swimming for so many years. That was the way I felt for the last years before quitting, after I had lost my enjoyment of swimming. I had been swimming for almost ten years. It was the feeling I got when I competed at swim meets that kept me going. That feeling of accomplishment, determination, competitiveness, and sometimes, failure. I loved that mixture of feelings. But, later on, during the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I made my choice of not swimming in my last year of high school. I simply just quit.
I was determined to study for the SAT and the ACT instead of swimming with my beloved friends / teammates. I made this choice in order to improve my level of critical thinking. Sometimes sacrificing something you love is necessary to fulfill better, bigger goals. Like my father always tells me, you always have to think of your future or longtime goals and what sacrifices you have to make to reach those goals. With every door that is closed, another door is opened. With everything that you put aside or quit, new ideas, routes, and goals emerge from its ashes. Quitting an activity, a hobby, a sport is hard, especially when you have been involved in it for a long time, but letting it go may open up new opportunities for greater things you have not yet realized you wanted or needed. For example in my situation, quitting swimming, or simply taking a break from swimming, was a good way for me to study for the SAT and the ACT and to open a door for myself to acceptance in more