Swimming: the good, the bad, and the ugly

If you know me in real life or know just a little about me already, you probably know that I spend the majority of my days in the water. Water meaning pool (most of the time). I started swimming laps at the tender age of three and started competing just nine months later at four years old. As Brad Paisley would say, "and so it began, my love affair with water." I flippin' love swimming. LOVE IT. I have been swimming for so long (so long meaning fifteen years) that I consider it an integral part of my life.

Since high school has ended, I haven't swam too much because all the teams I was on ended after graduation. Lame! It was a sad end to the season(s) and then I got thinking...wow, this could possibly be the last time I ever swim competitively! It's actually really sad and after a couple weeks I already missed it. For about a week or two now, I have been lap swimming most mornings to keep myself active and in the water. Don't get me wrong, it has felt so incredibly nice, but something is missing. Do you happen to know what that something is? My team. My team(s) were the absolute best and without them with me all day every day, my heart feels a little bit empty.

And that leads me to the good, bad, and ugly of swimming (I'm sure non-swimmers have heard that it's a love/hate "relationship." And that, my friends, is 100% truth.):

GOOD

Team bonding!

Knowing how to swim! This is always a plus because I can trust myself in the pool, plus it makes it easy to teach swim lessons! :)

BAD

Getting beat up on a weekly basis...(this is in water polo, actually)

UGLY

Broken equipment. When I hear swimming, I think of very little clothing (or whatever), not much equipment, and little financial issues. The truth is, that swimming can quickly add up to be a very expensive depending how often you go through caps, goggles, swim suits, fins, pull buoys, etc.