Creative Writing: Pressing Out From Under The Highway Bridge

It's any given evening on the Chattahoochee River- rain or shine, blazing heat and humidity, blistering cold, or any condition in between. Pressing out from under the bustling highway bridge is a 55 ft. long, 1.5 ft. wide carbon fiber racing shell. Eight rowers sit facing the stern each holding an 11 ft. long oar to hook through the water in unison. Eight oars, eight sliding seats, eight outriggers, and eight swinging athletes. As the stern emerges from under the bridge, however, nine bodies come into view. The ninth and smallest member of this crew is sitting in a different seat tucked in the hull, facing the rowers. This ninth athlete is steering the vessel by slightly tugging on tiller strings that control a rudder the size of a credit card.

" PUSH!" to emphasize the exertion on the drive when the blades start moving through the water, and " send" to indicate the end of the drive when the blades flick out of the water with a thump and send the bow pulsing forward. As a coxswain I not only tell my rowers when to row, I tell them how to row by pointing out technical errors in the boat and encouraging certain amounts of pressure and intensity. I never repeat a phrase more than three times consecutively because words and phrases lose their meaning when they're simply used to fill up time. When I first started coxing, it seemed that the most skilled coxswains were the ones who constantly spewed words at their rowers or had the loudest voice on the river and around the boathouse. Trying to adopt this persona would have been an arduous effort for a composed introvert like me, but I felt destined for this unique position. So I vowed to become the best coxswain I could possibly be while still remaining true to myself.

At first, sticking with this goal meant veering off into uncharted waters. I couldn't imagine how a coxswain with my personality could possibly be successful. I constantly turned to my rowers, asking for feedback on how the other coxswains and I were performing. I was relieved to hear multiple rowers admit that they often tune out coxswains when they talk nonstop or repeat the same calls over and over again in the same tone. I saw that