Personal Statement
Since I was a baby, I always liked the water. I had my first swimming lesson when I was just nine months old. We would vacation in the Gulf, and I always raced to the beach or the pool. When I was 6-years-old, I was able to join my pool’s swim team. I was tall for my age, and this helped me reach the wall sooner than others. But I soon found that I needed to swim year around if I wanted to beat the summer kids. Starting when I was 9-years-old, I started swimming year around. Swimming year around put me in a whole new class of competition, one that I did not always like. Swim meets can be very long. There is a lot of waiting to swim one event under a minute. I got very bored very fast. The one part I liked about swim practice was when we would break up the practice by playing games. One game we played was water polo. Since I never liked racing against a timer, I gravitated toward the team sport. When I was in the 8th grade, my mom asked me if I wanted to try out for the high school water polo team. I did, and I was hooked. Since then I have traveled to Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Cleveland, Malibu and Stockton, CA to play or to get better conditioning. Water Polo is not as popular in Georgia as it is in other states, but it is coming around. When I first played on my high school team, we came in last in the state. Last year we came in 4th. This year we should improve that standing. I became the goalie for the varsity team my junior year. This position allows me to see the field and to help my teammates get in better positions. I like the team mentality, the friendships, and the spirit. Being on the water polo team has helped me to understand certain life lessons, like playing as one, losing as one and winning as one.
