2013-14 swim season!!!

The 2013 swim season has started off with me feeling strong and determined. I walk into practice every day, except Sunday, with the motivation to give it 110% without a second thought or doubt in my mind. Although I am still a junior in the swimmer world ( now known as senior development ), nothing can stop me from reaching one of my many goals, to be a senior swimmer by the time Christmas rolls around. My swim schedule is totally flipped turned over in a sometimes frustrating way with the practice time changes and my sister joining the team, so now I get to the pool 2 hours early due to her practice being at 4:15 and mine at 6:00 or 6:45 every other day. On the days I don't have dry lands my mom takes me to the gym while I wait for practice to begin to get some weight training in, so it works out to my advantage on those days.  

The first meet will be coming up soon, so I'm both excited and nervous at the same time. It will be my first meet since February! I've been struggling with keeping my head in my own lane and keeping focused on what I'm doing as aposed to others. I guess that's always been a weakness of mine, but I have to say I've been working on it and my focuse has been more fine tuned to myself through time and effort. As I look back on my attitude from last year, I realized I could be a bit better of a teammate, and I made it a goal to say at least one nice thing everyday to my lanemates and to give them more encouragement, especially to my least favorite teammate, after all, we are a team and a team is only as strong as it's weakest player.

School has started up again and there isn't much to say on that subject except being homeschooled can be a lonely but beneficial thing. I'm now an official member of the Civil Air Patrol and have been getting my uniforms and accessories in the mail.  My 16th birthday party was the best that I could have asked for, celebrated with friends and family at home, and I had a homemade watermelon cake! Everyone loved it. I also went hiking in the Shenandoah mountains down a 4 mile trail with my parents and saw a beautiful waterfall, sadly the camera was forgotten, and no pictures could be taken. My mental strength to keep pushing through hard workouts has been insanely improved, and already this year as well as swim season is showing to be one of the best.