Taper

            Taper, it is finally here. Swimmer’s favorite time of the season, taper is the part of the year where practices get easier to prepare your body for the big meets coming up. The amount of yards drops as the rest in between increases. Also morning practices are over so you can actually sleep like a normal human being for the first time since swimming started.

             I was 6 years old when I joined the local swim team. I was already a good swimmer because I grew up a few blocks away from a pool and me and my mom and sisters would go to the pool every day, rain or shine. This is where I originally learned how to swim, no swimming lessons just messing around at the pool all day. I was very talented at a very young age. I could swim every stroke and do well when I was swimming kids two years older than me because the youngest division was 8 and under. At practice I swam with the older kids because the kids my age weren’t fast enough for me. Plus I liked the older kids a lot more. Swimming with the older kids challenged me and made me push myself which just made me better and by the time I turned 8 I won the 8 and under 25 yard breaststroke city championship.

 The best part of my younger days of swimming was the enjoyment I got. Nowadays every time I wake up early for swim practice I hate it and I don’t want to swim. But back then I woke up early every morning wanting to go to the pool to get better and swim. I don’t absolutely hate swimming anymore because if that was the case I would’ve quit by now. I don’t love it anymore but I enjoy enough to still do it. Even though I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to, I will still miss it and the memories I made