Blog Option 4

        Attending a large public high school made blending in with the crowd seem simple, but being involved in athletics my freshman year proved otherwise. After spending my entire life up until entering high school engaging in competitive swimming, I decided that I was going to try out for the varsity swim team of Frisco High School. After a highly competitive weekend try out period, I was fortunate enough to fill one of the 30 spots on the varsity team. Not only was I now in a completely different school environment but I needed to begin to form a new camaraderie with a group of other high school students who were for the majority older than myself, and much stronger. The amount of pressure to succeed academically and athletically became overwhelming and was heightened by the embarrassment by my coach and teammates at the first swimming competition.

         I remember the second Saturday of September my freshman year of high school as if it were yesterday. It was the opening meet of the season and I had been entered into the 400 yard freestyle relay. I had been selected to be the fourth leg of the race, which is one of the most essential pieces of a relay team. My coach at the time, reminded me that I had a huge responsibility to do everything in my power to be successful and outswim the other team’s anchor. The race began and after the third swimmer had dove off the block, I climbed on top and waited for her return. We were winning the race when she reached to wall and then it was my turn to finish and win the relay. I was moving through the water quickly but on my third lap I began to tire, and my speed decreased dramatically. Needless to say, I climbed out of the water to realize that I had lost the relay for the team. Upon approaching my coach, he began to yell. He claimed that I “blew the race off” and looked as if the meaning of team meant nothing to me.

     At this moment, the feelings that rushed through my mind were entirely parallel to Rachel in Sandra Cisnero’s Eleven. No matter how hard I tried to explain that I tried everything I could, my coach shut me down. He told me I let my team down, and that I would not be swimming an important event for a long period of time. Much like Rachel in Eleven, I felt as if  “all the years inside of me—ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one—are pushing at the back of my eyes” as I ran to the bathroom and cried (Cisneros 1). Not only had my coach belittled and bullied me but my teammates would not talk to me. Just as Rachel, I wanted that day to pass as soon as possible. I envisioned myself relating to Rachel after swimming this race because assumptions were made about me that I had no control over. Being publically embarrassed in a school environment leaves a lasting self confidence dent that children across the US experience every day.