Exercise 9 from Andrea

                                                          The Years I'll Never Forget
                                                                Andrea Daily
Swimming has always been a huge part of my life. I think everyone has a passion for something and for me that was swimming. I was never a fan of high school, so swimming is the one thing I looked forward to after school. I loved how I could hear the screams of people cheering and the minute I went underwater it all disappeared as if it was just me and the water and no one else. It's not all about swimming back and forth and racing though. Although I did love that part, it was the people that really made it fun and enjoyable. The picture shown above is from a districts swim meet in 2015. If it weren't for those three people standing beside me I would never have made it through ten years of swimming. They always supported me and motivated me to do my best. Every swim meet in high school all four of us swam in the 400 freestyle relay, which means each person swims a total of 4 laps. Every time I would hear, "Go Andrea!" "Kick!" "Swim faster!" it motivated me to push as hard as I could through the water. That was the last swim meet all four of us swam together. It was a very emotional day and I think all of us shed a couple tears. It was also one of our best meets we ever had. Every single one of us dropped at least three seconds and we missed the record by two seconds! In such a short race it's very difficult to even drop a second, so I was very proud of all of us. It was a day none of us will ever forget.
When swimming ended, I wasn't sure how I would survive without my teammates. We began to drift apart and didn't hang out as much as we did during the swim season. In the summer I began to reconnect with my teammates when I started working at the local outdoor pool in my town. It brought back great memories of my swimming years and I felt like I was reliving a part of my days when I was swimming. Every summer I work at the same pool and catch up with all of my old teammates and it always makes me appreciate the great times I had with them.