Personal Statement
I hate not performing at my best in competition. Nevertheless, it happens to everyone, even the best athletes in the world. Even though it sucks, and I do not like it, failure has it's place in success. As Thomas Edison put it, "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Looking at losing or not having your best performance from that perspective helped me to understand that I need to lose to win. It's a learning experience and if you do not learn to you do not get better. I try and put this mindset into everything I do: school, swimming, and even my relationships with other people. I believe this makes me a good candidate for the next level of swimming and life.
My aspirations for collegiate swimming are a NCAA Division 1 schools who are ranked highly in swimming, I do not mind being a fish in a large ocean, that is just another challenge to overcome on my way to success. I like setting lofty goals that are hard, or sometimes near impossible to attain, and one of my goals for swimming in college are making NCAA finals before my junior year.