After a long wait, I had finally turned eleven. Because of this very fortunate event, I would now be able to swim in the later events! Currently I am a slow swimmer, but swimming in the later events was a privilege. Doors were opening and I was getting a chance to prove myself as a good swimmer. Everyone was proud of me even though I hadn’t done much except turn eleven.
Finally the day of my first big swim meet had arrived. Girls were all rushing to the locker rooms, eager to put on their swimsuit and check the lists for their events. Happily, I skipped to towards the wall where all the events were printed on sheets of paper. I knew that I didn’t have to worry about changing into my swimsuit right away, because I had the later events and would have plenty of time to change later. Jessie, Jenna, Pinocchio, Roger, and I were doing the freestyle event, number 35. Kelly, my best friend, wasn’t at the meet because she was a year younger than me, so she had the earlier events. Lying down on a towel that was placed next to mine was Pinocchio. My goodness, he was a fast swimmer and I had no chance of beating him! Normally, girls and boys are separated in races, but since this meet had very few people attending, the coaches mixed the boys and girls races and made it a co-ed meet. On the large black board in front of me I noticed that the number scribbled upon it was 35!
Painstakingly, I stood up and walked to the board, indicating that I was ready to go swim. Quickly, my group and I walked to the pool and took our places on the diving board. Racing hearts were all around me even after all the intense practicing at the swim club; after all the yelling from coaches and not-always-so encouraging shouting; after swimming all those thousands of yards back and forth; after diving off the diving board till our legs and arms ached; and even after ours swimsuits had become ragged just because we had swam so much, despite all that, everyone was still nervous and anxious to know what place they would get; all waiting to dive into the cool water and start taking their first strokes and hope to finish first. “Steady... and GO!” Terrified by the loud noise of the whistle - as I hadn’t been paying attention to what was happening I had forgot about the loud whistle - I dived into the pool. Up, down, up, down, I took a breath then swam again and as I reached the wall I touched it and hopped out!
Various expressions were cast upon all the faces of the people sitting on the bleachers and it was then that I realized that all the other swimmers were swimming back because it was a 50-yard race, not a 25-yard race. When I had noticed that people had started cheering me on to go finish the race, I dived back in the water. Xylem would have been working very fast inside of me if I was a plant and had some because with every stroke I took, I swallowed a large amount of chlorine water. Yay! Zealously, I finished the race and although I finished last, I finished with dignity and knowledge to never make the same mistake again.