Sonic here with a question: What's your swimming story?
Here's mine...
My story begins in late March of 2004, when there was a void in my life. Something was missing, but what? It had been ten years since I last swam and about four years when I last saw a pool. My life was to a point where I couldn't carry on anymore. I decided to take a long hiatus from College as I felt I was only chasing my own tail and felt like I wasn't going anywhere. In the mid to late 90s, I had to quit swimming because of special eye surgeries to control my advanced Glaucoma, which has been stabilized ever since. Of course, this depressed me, since I thought I would never see a pool or be in the water ever again. :(
By early April 2004, I asked myself an important question: "When was the last time you really went swimming?" After asking myself this, I realized what was missing in my life and started making research on local pools on my own. When I announced to my family that I wanted to start swimming again, my mother was concerned that I would run the risk of an eye infection (since I have open inscisions on both my eyes, right under my eyelids.) I assured her that with the right pair of goggles, the risk of an eye infection is minimal.
Three weeks later, I bought two pairs of Speedo's and the rest of my equipment.
Monday, April 26, 2004 will have a very special place in my heart and memory, for on that very day, after a ten year hiatus, I took the plunge and started swimming again. I was reintroduced to the beauty and joy that is Swimming and wanted more. I didn't want to stop there and I wanted to fulfill my dream of competition.
I knew it was going to be a long and winding road before I started competing. By mid May 2004, I knew if I wanted to compete, that I had to join a team. I had never heard of Masters Swimming before, but knew that somewhere out there, there was a team for adults just like me.
After making several Yahoo! searches, I discovered usms.org and learned about Masters Swimming and the hope that there might be a team in my area.
After making my search in this very site, I was overjoyed when I discovered that there was an LMSC in my area. After placing some calls with questions about joining, I got the ball rolling into a new direction.
On Sunday, June 20, 2004, I Joined USMS and on Wednesday, July 7, 2004, I received my USMS # and membership card. And know what? Life's never been the same.
Tomorrow, April 26, 2005 will mark one year that I started swimming. As a way of celebrating, I plan on attending my first swim meet this Saturday! What better way to say happy first anniversary than with a swim meet?
Swimming saved my life and I don't plan to stop anytime soon.
Former Member
Sonic,
February, '74 marked the end of my swimming (or so I thought). I was tired of workouts and I wasn't enjoying it anymore.
Somewhere around 2000 I started scuba diving. I really liked it, but I had this nasty tendency to use up my air before my buddy. So I decided to head back for the pool. But just for lap swimming. None of that serious Masters stuff for me, no thank you. Nope, I was just going to swim laps and try to build up my endurance.
Then, in January of this year, as I was heading into the pool for my daily lap swim I ran into this guy I recognized from years ago. He used to coach at one of the Y's here in Indy. He told me he was starting up a Masters program at my Y and asked if I'd be interested.
Against my better judgement I decided to give it a try. I should have known better.
It's daily practices again. And I've competed in two meets. And it's only April.
Two swim meets! Wow, I wish I were that lucky.
I heard some bad news though:
I might not be able to attend Saturday's meet due to transportation issues. My one sure ride had to work Saturday, which means he's not going to the meet like he wanted.
I've gotten a hold of two other teammates and hopefully I can resolve this problem. I'm REALLY interested in attending my first Meet Saturday.
Hopefully I do go. Please pray that I do.
Reguards,
Sonic Swimmer78
I want to thank Mark and Tom for sharing their wonderful thoughts on this thread.
I went swimming today and had a wonderful swim! From beginning to end, it's always wonderful when I'm in the water.
I also want to say that everyone here in the USMS Discussion Forums have been very supportive to me ever since I joined last summer with concerns about what to expect from this wonderful organization that I call home. You're all like family to me because I can cheer about a year's worth of swimming (Exact date included) and get great feedback, which to some may sound uninteresting and trivial.
I look forward to sharing my experience in my first of many meets. I've dreamed of competing ever since my days in high school, but due to lack of fairness and to a certain degree, respect, I was deprived of the opportunity of any competition.
For me, swimming has a wonderful meaning:
The joy, beauty and asthetic feel of smelling the chlorine in your skin after a wonderful swim. The feel of the soft water as it flowes past you, so tenderly and gently, almost like a sweet caress that says everything will be all right.
The support of team mates during workouts and competitions: The fact that there is no such things as "losers". If it took you five minutes to swim that 50 m fly and finished dead last, you're still a champion because of the effort and courage it took for you to show up to compete in what might be your first meet. Never measure accomplishments by size. It's the effort that truly counts.
Sonic here with some sad news and some great news all at once.
Let's start with the sad: I was unable to attend Saturday's Meet. I didn't have any means of transportation, which led me to missing out on this Meet. I was very disappointed for not attending, but there are future meets to come.
Now the great news: While on the phone with my coach, I expressed to him my great enthuseasm and joy for swimming and how much I love Masters and being with my LMSC.
During this conversation, my coach told me about an upcoming meet within a couple of weeks. Luckily, it's not a long drive, since it's here where I live! I'm truly excited about this and certainly cannot wait to obtain more concrete information about cette Meet. I'll keep you all posted when I obtain more info and the possibility of attending this Meet.
