Life experience has taught me that perseverance is integral to keep a community progressing towards its goals. Perseverance is at my very core. My life has been dominated by competitive swimming for the last fourteen years, filled by long, hard, lonely practices for two to three hours at a time. Looking at the same straight black line at the bottom of the pool, except for an occasional reprieve to look at the ceiling when doing backstroke. What sane person would subject themselves to what appears to be torture? Compound this with the fact that I am small in stature. When thinking about what the prototypical competitive swimmer would be, what comes to mind? Height and wingspan, less strokes needed for any distance. Large hands and feet,