Personal Narrative: My High School Swim Team

I don’t know exactly where I am going. Maybe this comes as a shock to those who think that because someone has good grades, they have their live figured out. It astonishes me just how mistaken this view is. Being born in Cuba I was limited as to what options I had for my life path. Consequently, the transition from one country to another when I was just twelve years old was very frustrating and tough. Somehow I managed to get a grasp of the language and progressively ascend from the lowest English classes to the most advanced in my school. I never failed to be hard on myself though, and I apply this concept to almost everything I do. However, this way of thinking has not come at no cost. My thinking process can be quite obsessive at times.
To this day I compete in my high school swim team, and yet I can’t seem to forget tryouts. All I remember is that I wasn’t sure of just how good I needed to be, so I spent five hours a day in the pool, burning my back just to make sure that I had done everything I could. That is to say that I see myself as a highly competitive individual, and I also have seen myself limited by my financial background. Maybe I couldn’t compete in the swim club, or maybe I couldn’t go to the FCCLA (a club) national competition this year because the trip to California was too expensive, but if something I am sure of, is that if I could, I would have. Now, surely I am unique, as it is technically impossible for someone to be exactly like anyone else, and what separates me from the rest, I think, is my tenacity, my need to grow. As a young child, I was constantly compared with to my older brother. He had good grades, he was smart. Being the youngest in probably most situations (I started school early) I was never heard, I was to follow examples, but I wanted to be the example. I want to be great, and I will be regardless of what challenges I have to face, or what barriers people put in front of me, I will be