Every swimmer knows the way it goes: it's early mornings, late nights, long weekends. It's a year-round commitment the magnitude of which you can never truly comprehend unless you're in the throes of it at all times. Below are 31 things that every swimmer will understand, and that will only hold meaning to you if you're one of us.

1. Christmas is your least favorite time of year.

2. Summers aren’t for sleeping in.

3. Your hands have battle scars from the wall.

4. High school state isn’t just a meet.

5. Your skin is always dry.

6. You forget what it’s like to have clean-shaven legs.

7. And then, when you do, you wear nothing but shorts for a week until the hair grows back.

8. Taper is the most glorious time of the year.

9. Prelim/final meets are equal parts horrible and amazing.

10. People saying “swimming isn’t that hard” makes you nearly homicidal.

11. Every part of your body hurts. All the time. Every. Part.

12. The most beautiful words in the English language: “we’re going to be getting out early today.”

13. Chlorine is your perfume, no matter how many showers you take.

14. In the summer, you wear the one-piece tan-line proudly.

15. People think it’s weird how comfortable you are with changing in front of others.

16. Weather is never an excuse for no practice.

17. You spend 90 percent of your time with the same people.

18. And you’ve probably never seen them wearing “normal” clothes.

19. Or wearing makeup. Or generally looking like a human being.

20. Meet warm-ups are not leisurely, they are war.

21. Your shoulders are as broad as a linebacker's.

22. Every time you meet another swimmer, you get way too excited.

23. You spend 45 minutes putting on a suit for a minute-long race.

24. Drylands are the most dreaded part of the day.

25. Except when they keep you from having to swim for longer.

26. You’re so used to it, that you think about a thousand other things instead of what lap you’re on.

27. And then you forget what lap you’re on, and hope someone else has been keeping track.

28. Kicking with shoes after leg days for drylands is your own personal hell.

29. You say you hate swimming at least 30 times a day.

30. But even when it’s over, you still identify yourself as a swimmer.

31. Because it’s what you love, and it’s always a part of you.