Personal Statement
I started swimming competitively in the 4th grade. I used to do karate, but my parents thought it wasn't giving me enough exercise, so they decided to make me switch over. I started at the McBurney YMCA Manta Rays, and while I was there I grew to like swimming a lot, and became pretty good at it. However, I wasn't super serious about the sport, and only practiced 3 days a week. This was soon to change.
My swimming life was completely changed when I went in to high school. As a freshman at Stuyvesant High School, I tried out for the swim team, called the Pirates, and got on. It was much more intense than what I had previously been accustomed to. Now practiced were 5 days a week, and for much longer. Swimming everyday with my teammates made me extremely close to them, and gave me a newfound appreciation for the sport of swimming. It was on the Pirates where I began to love swimming. The team also became my main motivation for continuing my swimming career, and gave me the drive to want to get faster.
At the end of the season my freshman year, we had made it to the City Championships, only to lose devastatingly on the last event to our rival team. This loss crushed me, but it gave me the will and determination to get faster and come back stronger the next season. I joined Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics, because I knew they were a strong team with great coaches and swimmers who could help me become the best swimmer I could be. I trained hard over the offseason and came back the next year ready. That year we won City Championships, and this past February we won again. I think the fact that I was able to turn such a terrible loss into something positive made me a stronger athlete and person.
Along with swimming, I have been able to maintain high grades in one of the most demanding public high schools in the country. Having to manage both the incredible amount of school work with my practices has made me much stronger, smarter, and more efficient.
The logical next step after swimming in high school is to swim in college. I have an unending love for the sport, and I hope I will be able to continue my journey as an athlete as I enter the next stage of my life.