The Swimmer

It has been said that you cannot improve yourself without trying things above your skill level. I fully stand by that statement. My personal experiences in band, chorus, and the swim team have all backed up that idea. In band, it’s all about how well you can play, and how much you can contribute to the group as an individual instrumentalist. Anybody can learn to play at a beginner’s level, but if you decide that that’s enough, then you’ll never be able to hold a candle to the people that have…

I was in my sophomore year in high school and I was preparing for a swim meet on a Thursday in February. It was high school sectionals and East Noble is part of a really tough section. East Noble has a fairly small swim team and swimmers usually don’t make is past sectionals into state, at least in the past few years. It’s rare that the guys even have individuals that make it into finals. Regardless of the odds, I always have to do my best and that was what I planned on doing. I woke up that…

make up great drama. Whether it be the plot line, characters, music, tragic fall, or identifying with the protagonist, all aspects help make a great drama. The Guardian is a movie about a young man who joins the Coast Guard and becomes a rescue swimmer. He has to overcome the loss of his closest friends that died in a car crash and be strong enough to save the lives of others who are lost at sea. Aristotle’s principles to poetics are applied to the film The Guardian through identifying with…

Imagine being seventeen and not only competing in your first Olympic competition, but also winning it. Even though to most people it seems impossible, but that's exactly what Melissa or Missy Franklin did by winning four gold, plus a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics. As a result earning herself the nickname “Missy the Missile”. Currently missy holds the world title for the 200m backstroke. Throughout her life it was evident that Missy would make it to the Olympics, but the only question…

In the 1995 movie Seven, which portrays a serial killer John Doe, who is killing people in relationship to the seven deadly sins of the bible. John Doe is leading police detectives Mills, and Somerset around in a cat and mouse chase. While young and relentless Det. Mills, is partnered up with soon to retire Det. Somerset, who is fed up with the world and just wants to move to farm and retire. The movie takes many turns and in the end which will seem to be a surprise to an all too well-planned…

Swimmers, place your feet.... take your mark... GO! The buzzer blairs and I’m off the wall at my first swim meet. Just one lap of backstroke, I thought to myself as I raced. But, as I continued to swim this lap felt longer than it should've . I never swam backstroke for this long in practice. I continued to swim before deciding to take a quick glance to see where I was compared to the wall. I snuck a look to my side and couldn’t find my lane! Pulling myself vertical in the water, I realized…

Every Tuesday and Thursday, my first class of the day is Politics of Black Identity, taught by Professor Cokley, and each day I get increasingly excited about the topics we will discuss in class. Every topic we have discussed in class has been very real and open minded subjects that have all had my brain working in new ways in order to determine my opinion on questions and topics I have never been asked or discussed before. Two issues we have conversed about in class that have stuck out to me…

There are as many reasons for athletics success as there are athletes, but Ryan Lochte has had at least three significant advantages. Ryan Lochte is one of the most prominent swimmers today because of the positive influences his dad, who served first as a swim coach, the lifelong molding and shaping as a competitive swimmer that developed Ryan grew up in swimming, and because every success he has fuels his fire, his desire for greater and greater success. (Lochte 1) Lochte’s father was a swim…

at my high school my freshmen year. I was swimming around and I asked a few swimmers if I should join the swimming team they all laughed and said,” swimming isn’t for fat people like you.” My gym teacher over heard what they said and called me over. He told me a speech that I will never forget in my life which he said, “ You’re a loser if you are going to let people define who you are and if you want to become a swimmer and prove these kids wrong you got to earn it because no one is going to…

one another. In this case by analyzing the similarities of the fathers and the symbolic elements of each story, one could argue the fathers intentions, though good, costed them their families. El Santo Americano by Edward Bok Lee and The Cuban Swimmer by Milcha Sanchez-Scott are two stories that are filled with family conflict. Though both stories are different, similarly each story expresses how, psychologically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining it is for each of the…