Swim Essay

Swimming for Bangor High School for the past four years has meant having fun with friends, supporting teammates, pushing each other, living traditions, and growing as a person through experiences with the team. Jumping into a cold pool every day can be uncomfortable, but the warmth generated by teammates jumping in with you makes it more enjoyable. Splashing around and joking during practice with friends not only makes the time go by but also takes my mind off stressful things like college applications and tests. Even outside the pool, in the hallways of school, we swimmers smile and greet each other, further building our connection and teamwork. In our endless quest for improvement and faster times, being on the team has meant friendly competition during practice and races where we push each other to give our best effort - something much easier to do with encouraging teammates nearby. The Bangor High School Swim Team has time-honored traditions that I have been fortunate to carry on, namely our ridiculous cheers after practice, before races, and after races. Here are some of our cheers: “Black Flags over Waikiki, Huzzah, Huzzah Huzzah!”, “Primary colors of a dog: Grey Grey Grey, I’m a dog, Woof!”, “Re-ra-chi re-ra-cha re-ra-chi-chi cha cha, booray booray shishkabob, PVCs PVCs Ra Ra Ra!” Another tradition is wrapping the girls’ swim team’s houses in toilet paper at the end of the season (they wrap our houses in TP as well). This year, as we finished TPing the last house, the police arrived. We had to explain our tradition. After verifying it was true, the police laughed and told us they were impressed. Finally, being on the Swim Team for four years has provided a coming-of-age experience for me. I remember seeing the older swimmers like Carson Prouty as seniors when I was a freshman, and then feeling the current of time pull me through high school to today, when I am a senior. Being on the swim team has allowed me to grow as a person and experience moments with friends I’ll always cherish.