Courtney Kim '23 Recruiting Profile

From a young age, I’ve always known what career I wanted to pursue. It was always civil engineering. I’ve always loved designing, creating, and building. After losing my mom to a cancer medical malpractice case in kindergarten, it was the only thing I felt I had control of. I had control of what I was able to build and that was all that mattered. It wasn’t until I got to high school that I realized I was terrible at it. I was able to draw out designs, measure material, and lay out plans, but when it came to the implementation step, I was horrible. I made so many mistakes that my shop teacher always stayed near my workstation just in case I made another error. I knew I was bad, I didn’t care. I was having too much fun trying to find alternate solutions to my problems. I loved learning through mistakes, it was the only way I truly learned. 

In college, I plan to see where this pathway of engineering takes me, and see if I can make my doubtful but supportive shop teacher proud. I find it funny to have the reputation of being a decently smart AP and honors student in every subject, but also being laughable when it comes to the actual application of theories and calculations in a woodshop. All I know is my persistence will guide me through college and in time, I will see change. I will learn and I will improve. I know that it takes time, and I am willing to spend it while making mistakes and thinking critically for solutions.

My passion for things tends to overtake my actual abilities, and I acknowledge that. If it weren’t for my level of persistence in the shop, I wouldn’t be able to learn. It’s the same with swimming. I never did see myself as the “best swimmer ever”. I am too firm of a believer in that everyone can improve, even at their greatest. After one of my best swims when I was in top shape, all I could think about was what I could have done better. It did not hit me how hard I was being on myself until my coach told me to smile. He told me to relax and smile. Through my exhaustion and uneasiness, I finally let myself be proud. Sometimes I forget how demanding of a sport swimming is and I tend to rarely be satisfied with my performance. This is my drive. This is my motivation. I always want to just be better. There is always room for improvement.

Over the years, my excitement for the sport has never faded and I still see it as my escape. Whenever I am asked what I think about while I swim, my answer is always the same. Nothing. My head is always blank. Besides occasionally tapping into reality to work the set, my mind is always on vacation, shut off from the rest of the world. I cannot imagine my life without the sport. I have been accustomed to the pool ever since my mom signed me up for a novice team when I was four years old. After my mom passed, I made a promise to myself that I would stick to the sport and dedicate my success to her. It just felt necessary. Now being seventeen years old, it is crazy to look back on my life and see how everything has changed, with the exception of swimming. Swimming has been my one constant through my mother’s death, a global pandemic, and now graduating high school and going into college. It has never failed to amaze me how four strokes and twenty-five yards have influenced my life in an immeasurable amount of ways.