I’ve been swimming for as long as I can remember. My mom put my sister and I in the water as soon as she could, and I still have a picture of myself at my first swim meet when I was five. Over the years, I have learned some pretty valuable lessons that apply to my everyday life. This is a list of some of the things that I have learned from swimming:

1) Self-Discipline

Out of all the years of my swimming career, I have had to force myself to do things that I didn’t want to do. This includes, waking up at the crack of dawn for practice, or forcing myself to jump into the frigid water. Outside of swimming this mostly applies to my homework, but can also apply to my job.

2) Time Management

This goes without saying, but time is important in swimming. You race the clock more than you race other people, or at least I do. I have always been good with time management, and I have to credit this to the countless hours spent in the pool. I know how to schedule things around practice time, and I know how much time I have between my classes and practice to do things without being late.

3) Good Sportsmanship

This is another important one. I haven’t always been good with this, and this has taken me a long time to figure out. One time in high school, I almost got kicked out of a swim meet because I threw my cap and goggles across the pool deck. Since I’ve been in college, I have gotten a lot better at this. I learned how to not be a sore loser whenever I lose a race. When I was in high school, after every race we shook hands and said, “Good Job” to our opponent, whether or not they were on our team. I know to not get upset every time something does not go my way. I know how to show patience and humility in competition. I learned how to bite my tongue and say that “Good Job” even when I’m upset.

4) Never Quit

This is probably the most important one to me. Even though I have been swimming for most of my life, I’m not necessarily the fastest swimmer ever. I have learned to push through difficult workouts, even if I’m the last one to finish. I learned to keep going, instead of stopping whenever I get tired. Because of this, I now know that I need to keep pushing forward in everything that I do. I now have the ability to get over difficult roadblocks in life that I may not have been able to tackle before.