Adam Current '11--Today, after an already rough morning practice, the swimmers were required to do a dive off the diving board, or as I like to say, 'The Well of Death!’ A few days prior, the divers were asked to participate in a relay race with the swimmers, so it was our turn to take our chances with diving. For those of you that do not know, I am deathly afraid of heights and just going off the three meter diving board takes a lot of courage. Luckily for me, this trip has been about having enough courage to get the job done.

Just the other night I had to face my fear of doing two hundred yard butterflies in practice. When Coach Dunaway said that we had five of them in a row, I wanted to crawl back to the security of high school swimming, but something inside told me to persevere. I survived the set and in doing so feel more confident about my abilities. As a result, I am slowly becoming stronger mentally while I am physically being challenged every practice.

When we first started the season, Coach Weitz told us that swimming is one-hundred percent mental--I now see what he means. Our practices themselves aren’t that bad, but when added to a string of similarly hard practices it is tough. But like I mentioned earlier, for me it is all about courage. Having the courage to get out of a nice bed when the alarm sounds, having the courage to suit up when you know that pain is inevitable, having the courage to tell yourself, ‘If I can just push it one more yard (or meter)...just one more.” But most of all, having the courage to face yourself and the clock, even when you just want to give up. As each practice steadily becomes history, I am surprising even myself with courage I didn’t even know existed!

All in all, when this is done I am more than confident that I will have enough courage to swim well at the conference meet. I am a firm believer that you 'reap what you sow,' and just by surviving this trip--let alone when you give it 100%--the rewards will be great. Just one more thing though, although we practice most of the time, there is still much fun to be had. As soon as I am done typing this, the team will be going to the beach. Luckily for me, this won't take that much courage...