Oh, you swim?

One of my friends was walking through the halls the other day wearing one of his high school swimming t-shirts and got stopped by one of the swimmers at the school. “Oh, you swim?” he asked my friend. “Yeah, I used to,” my friend replied. The swimmer told him he needed to join the team and didn’t even introduce himself until my friend asked for his name.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. When swimmers find other swimmers, we often gravitate towards one another and have an immediate bond. We know what we go through to be swimmers and how the sport can shape the rest of your life. I think that this sport is unique in the way that it connects people who have never even been on a team together before.

Conversations often go on about why we started swimming, whether we actually enjoyed the sport or if our parents made us swim, what events we swam, etc. I feel a bit awkward when I speak to other swimmers though because I did not learn to swim until high school, so I am usually behind the average performance level and skill of people my age. I definitely know I am an athlete and I have put in a lot of time and energy into the sport, but I still have bouts of imposter syndrome.

“This psychological phenomenon, known as Impostor Syndrome, reflects the core belief that you are an inadequate, incompetent, and a failure — despite evidence that indicates you’re skilled and successful.” Via https://medium.com/the-mission/feel-like-a-fraud-9-signs-of-imposter-syndrome-822fd1b713c2

Especially now that I am not on a swim team, I feel like I am not the swimmer I once was. However, I know that I am a swimmer because every time I jump in the water, my body knows what it is supposed to do. I feel myself adjusting to the correct form with every stroke. I think more and more about perfecting each flip turn. And, most importantly, I fall in love with being in the water each time. It might completely take it out of me, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be when I’m in a pool.

So, when someone asks me ‘Oh, you swim?’ I give them a big smile and say “heck yeah I do.”