“Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try.” It was one of those moments where the pressure was on me. And this was one of those moments, which I’ve been dreading ever since I started swim team. It was a race between Liann Tran, one of the fastest people I know, and myself. We knew each other ever since we were infants, and Liann’s mom was the one that recommended my mom to sign me up for swim team. From there on, we began swimming with each other throughout the yearlong season with the Cascade Swim Team that ends during the summer. Throughout the summer, we were in the Southern Division Championship for Summer Swim League. At that time, I didn’t really have a choice but to swim with different coaches at the Southwest pool because I didn’t have a ride to the Rainier Beach pool. I regretted choosing these events to swim. “Why didn’t I choose something else?!” I thought, both …show more content…
I was trying to go as fast as I could, but still pace myself. The pacing myself idea seemed to fail because on the 3rd twenty-five, I started to get tired which caused me to slow down. At that moment, I saw Liann inching forward and I knew that this was my last chance to catch up to her. I took a quick breath, lifted my head up slightly, brought my legs up towards my chest and somersaulted. I pushed off the wall from a 90 degree angle on my back, did quick dolphin kicks and rotated to 180 degree to my front as I kicked. I kept on as far as I could. Once I reached the surface, I noticed that Liann was close to me and started kicking and stroking faster. I reached out for each of my strokes and there was a pile of white foam behind me indicating that I was kicking hard. The wall came into my view and with all my final strength, I touched the wall on my side. Immediately, I looked up at the scoreboard and smiled to myself. “I did it!” I told myself with a