Still Love...	Male 23 years old YPSILANTI, MI
Subscribe to this Blog Add as Friend Start a SlugFest Send a Message

So lately I have been stressed the F*&K out, working three jobs (2 at newspapers, and one in an office) and my job in the office is KILLING me. I also have 16 credit hours in my last semester of college. So as you can see I have a pretty full plate and lately it has been catching up to me, and I feel like there is something missing, I have a longing for something that I cant quite put my finger on. This weekend I covered the Division II HS Boys Swimming Championships. The second I walked into the pool I realized what I had been missing. I was at this very same meet five years prior, and although I left everything I had in the pool and walked away with All-State honors in both the 200 and 500 Freestyle events my heart longed to get back into the pool. I longed to struggle into a suit that was 4 times to small and took 10 minutes to get into and out of. I longed to shave me head again, I would have given anything to be on that pool deck swimming. My HS coach was and still is the Bobby Knight of Michigan High School Swimming. I have been cussed out in front of not only my family but hundreds of people or getting my relay DQed, I have had kick boards thrown at me, and I have been called a faggot for throwing up. But that cold March day in 2003 Von Acker said that I was a man, and he hugged me. That was a day i will never forget. As I sat at the media table yesterday morning I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting the chlorine smack me in the face, God I miss that smell. Soon I realized what I had been missing. Swimming, I missed swimming. Swimming was my thing. I was an amazing swimmer and the Red Sox fanatic. The thing I missed about swimming was that it was always there. No matter if I was having a good or bad day, if I girl I liked wrecked my world (which happened a lot in HS) or I failed a math test, I could sort it out in the pool. I missed the guys on my team, I bled with them, and spend 1000s of hours with them over the corse of my 13 year swimming career. But most of all I missed the race, I missed the competition, I missed the raw emotion swimming brought out in me. I HATED the person in the lane next to me, thats what i was trained to do. Acker taught us that swimming was war, and the pool was the battle field. Every time I stood on the block I was out to demoralize and embarrass the person next to me. I totally got taken in by the meet this weekend, the sights, sounds, smells, emotions, everything that goes along with a good swim meet. And best of all I talked to Acker and he said I could come in and swim whenever I wanted, and that there is even a masters program (which is a swim team for older people) in our area that he had been wanting to join for a while but didnt want to do it alone. So I am going to dust off my speedo and starting Monday I think I am going to get back into the pool. Oh and if you want to read my articles here are the links. FRIDAYS PRELIMS - http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308/SPORTS05/803080345/1049 and SATURDAYS FINALS - http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308/SPORTS05/803080429/1049/SPORTS05........As always thanks for reading....MUCH RESPECT....LONG LIVE THE MAFIA.....REPEAT IN 08/RICE IN 09! R/L/F!