Personal Narrative: My High School Swim Team

Being a competitive swimmer for the past 10 years has exposed me to meeting a lot of new people. My adult role models along with my closest friends are all apart of my swimming career in some way. I was honored enough to be named a captain of my high school swim team, a recognition only few receive as our team is 50 members large. Being a captain not only meant leading stretches and getting a cool award at the end of the year, it meant people looked up to me. When someone had a bad race or needed some encouragement, I was the person they turned to. Having a constant smile on my face or saying “we can do it” became an everyday occurrence for me. Parents frequently came up to me telling me how much I impacted their child’s life or how they came home saying my pre game pep talk is what got them through their tough races. While doing a team building exercise where you say the most positive person in your life, Jenna Pehowski was a name that was said over and over. Younger kids wanted to swim the events I did, wear the goggles I had, or swim in my lane everyday because of the constant positivity I gave off. My goal for the team was state champions, and while we became region champions for the eighth …show more content…
Most of the senior group is comprised of freshman or sophomores, with very few juniors and seniors as the schedule is challenging to manage if swimming is not a part of your college career. Everyday I am swimming in a lane with people two or three years younger than me and again have to set a good example for those to follow. Saying encouraging words or going first in the lane for hard sets is a task I have taken upon myself to do in order to help my teammates get through challenging practices. I also am the source of transportation my younger teammates who are all unable to drive which has granted me the title of swim mom as everyday I drive a full car of children