Kathleen Gregg sits on the couch straight faced as usual, probably already thinking of what she will say before I ask a single question. She answers almost every question, more like she was writing it, not saying it, with an indifferent tone. Her high school experience was divided, on one side there was the small desert town, and on the other was the rich sophisticated San Diego suburb. Basically the exact opposite of each other , unknowing of the other.
Her high school experience started in a small desert town, and she achieved almost everything she wanted to. In a town with only one movie theater, no mall, surrounded by heat resistant crops. The front yards were shaded by olive trees, and scorpions swam in the swimming pools. The school …show more content…
Overall it was a much different experience, and she saw the new school as a negative. The school was large with 2400 kids, and to make matters worse, it started in 9th grade, not tenth grade like the school in the desert. Their background lead to clicky, aloof, richer, more sophisticated people. Which made socializing more difficult, and unpleasant. The school was also more rigorous, competitive, and academically challenging, so she didn't have time for the her favorite activity, swimming...
One event would change her thinking forever. She was on the varsity swim team at school and on a private league. On both teams she won the California state championships in A rank multiple times during her time at that school. Swimming on two different leagues took up basically the whole day outside of school, from five in the morning to sundown, with little time in between. Being at junior olympic qualifier was in many ways like any other swim meet to her . With each meet, there is always a sense of anticipation, excitement, anxiety, and competitiveness. She got the typical 5 minute notice, before racetime, same feelings as usual. Generally in her age group, he would place first or second, but in freestyle, one girl would always beat her
Her high school experience started in a small desert town, and she achieved almost everything she wanted to. In a town with only one movie theater, no mall, surrounded by heat resistant crops. The front yards were shaded by olive trees, and scorpions swam in the swimming pools. The school …show more content…
Overall it was a much different experience, and she saw the new school as a negative. The school was large with 2400 kids, and to make matters worse, it started in 9th grade, not tenth grade like the school in the desert. Their background lead to clicky, aloof, richer, more sophisticated people. Which made socializing more difficult, and unpleasant. The school was also more rigorous, competitive, and academically challenging, so she didn't have time for the her favorite activity, swimming...
One event would change her thinking forever. She was on the varsity swim team at school and on a private league. On both teams she won the California state championships in A rank multiple times during her time at that school. Swimming on two different leagues took up basically the whole day outside of school, from five in the morning to sundown, with little time in between. Being at junior olympic qualifier was in many ways like any other swim meet to her . With each meet, there is always a sense of anticipation, excitement, anxiety, and competitiveness. She got the typical 5 minute notice, before racetime, same feelings as usual. Generally in her age group, he would place first or second, but in freestyle, one girl would always beat her