I hit the scratchy wall hard as if I wanted to break it in half. I quickly whipped around to see the timing board. My legs were shot, so I started to sink. What does that say? I anxiously thought as I whipped my goggles off. They were full of water and I couldn’t make out the number next to my team’s name.

We were standing in the High School parking lot waiting for the school bus to pull in. “Ready for today? It is a big day,” my coached asked as he looked me up and down with a quizative expression. I knew he was trying to read me to see how nervous I was. Did he really have to say it was a big day? I anxiously thought to myself as the pressure to do well weighed on me like a ton of bricks.

As we drove to Jenison’s school I listened to …show more content…
There were not this many people last night, I groaned. We warmed up as a team, but not all the team was competing today, only those we qualified for finals. Finally, the Pledge of Allegiance came on. That meant the Conference swim meet was about to start. I can do this, have the right mindset. I was in the first event, the medley relay.

As I was standing in line, impatiently waiting for the leader to walk us to the blocks, I could feel my body shaking from my nerves. I took a deep breath and glanced around the pool. The stands were packed with all of our fans, the parents. I could tell where Hudsonville parents were because it was a sea of maize and blue. They are here to support us no matter what, I tried to convince myself.

I looked over at my team. They looked just like the parents with our warm ups on, proudly showing off our school pride. All the swimmers were packed onto the pool deck like sardines. I am going to do it for them, I thought. But I could hardly hear myself because my heart was pounding in my …show more content…
I kicked harder than ever, I moved my arms as fast as I could and pulled fiercely. I hit the wall for my turn and came up perfectly. I took my first breath and felt myself glide through the water. I was going to do it.

As I hit the wall I turned to see Jenison’s swimmer looking at me. I looked at the timing board. A red “2” was glaring back at me. “NOOOOOO,” I yelled at myself as I threw my hands on my head. As I turned around to apologize to my team I realized they were screaming and jumping up and down happily. Why are they happy...we didn’t win?

One of my teammates from my relay team pulled me out of the water. “Look at your time, dummy!” she yelled over the cheering while pulling me out of the water. I slowly turned around. I couldn’t believe what I saw. I had swam my split of the relay in 23 seconds! 23 seconds!

I looked up in the crowd and could see my mom crying. She is so funny how emotional she gets; it is so easy to make her cry. I looked at my dad. He was whistling with the biggest smile on his face. My swim coach looked thrilled that we had done so