The life of a swimmer

Hi! I’m Andreia, I’m 13 years old and I’m in 8th grade. I’m a swimmer. I swim since I was seven years old. Since I am federated my life changed radically. My day is very busy after leaving school; I go to the municipal swimming pools, to have two and a half hour of training and some gym work every day of the week. On Tuesdays I wake up at six thirty in the morning to go training, and at eight, I go to school. Wake up so early to go training costs, but I know it takes; we’ve got a great spirit of sacrifice to get out of bed with enough energy to go swimming. Sometimes when I get home from school, I just want to go to the couch and watch TV, but thanks to my parents who always help me, I can think twice, have a lunch, take my bag and go to train. My parents always told me that the school comes first and then the swimming, and that if I’m not successful at school I will have to give up swimming. So my organization has to be more rigid than that of a normal student. My homework is done when I have some free time, like when I leave school before five. I study for the tests in the free-afternoons, but sometimes when I feel it isn’t enough, I have to miss the train. My grades are good and everyone thinks I study a lot, but not, I don’t have much time to study because even at the weekend I’m busy with the competitions, but I know sometimes it’s necessary if I want to continue swimming. I’ve to give up the things that a normal teenager likes to do. So instead of watching TV, being with friends, or in the computer I have to study. My mother always taught me that wanting something is important, and I have taken this motto very seriously not only in sport but in all that includes my life, there are times that I just want to give up, because all my friends who have a “normal life”, they do huge plans for the weekend, like going to the cinema, going for walks, some birthday parties, and most often I say that not, and the excuse is always that I must train. It’s hard because I’m a normal kid who needs outgoing with friends, the parties and the free time. But while my friend are at parties and I’m in a competition, when I’m swimming and I remember that they are having fun without me, I understand why I’m there swimming and not with them. I feel proud to be doing that, and have a life different from the so called “normal” because my sacrifices are rewarding. In summer it’s hard, because I train in the afternoon, and I see most of my friends in the outside pools having fun. The trains often end in July. The Summer National Championship… are competitions like those that make me feel complete, that make me forget all the difficulties I went through to get it, what I had to leave behind to live that huge adrenaline, and be able to translate my passion in a moment, in that competition nothing else mattered. It was a world apart, and this is what I’m sorry that people don’t understand when they say “Andreia, you’re always training… Andreia, I don’t know how you can…” I feel that swimming is part of me, and that is an inexplicable passion, we create friends, travel with them and have fun doing something that we love. I feel that mw teammates and me coaches are like a family, we support us a lot, laugh together, cry together and that’s what makes it very special. Swimming for me us half of my life, and I would like that everyone had a passion as I have, because it is rewarding. I think that in order to be good, whatever it is, is necessary wanting to, and enjoy what you do. Speaking for my experience to be a good swimmer, you need to set priorities, you must have a spirit of sacrifice and think that when it goes wrong, the next time will be better… you need to think positive and be confident, you must be strong and always want to be better, but most of all you have to be passionate about what you do.