Keeping my mind in check, by listening to Eminem to get myself fired up, but remaining calm, cool, and collected, I was wildly yelling cheering my teammates on as they quickly slammed into the wall.

“One more race, are you ready to give to all you got?” my teammate asked curiously.

“I was born ready, I didn’t swim the whole winter break to miss ECIC again!” I responded 

You gave up your entire freezing winter break to get to this moment. Don't blow it.

I heard the whistle blow, which meant to get up on the blocks. I stepped up to the blocks, curled my toes, and embraced the silence.

"100 yard breaststroke, take your mark," the referee ordered.

A bright shining flash came off the corner of my eye, and I immediately lunged into the frigid water. I couldn't hear a single thing just focused on doing my job. The blood was pumping hard all through my body. I threw my hands down to get my speed back underwater, I spread my legs out to get that last bit of speed as I'm running out of oxygen. I inhale a load of oxygen, take my first stroke and glide. Every stroke I glanced off the corner of my eye taking a look at the swimmer from Williamsville North. He was next to me the entire way. Every time I came out of the water I can hear a bunch of shouting, then silence as I plunge into the water. When I would get close to the wall, I would slam the wall, spin the other direction, and slip off the wall. When I hit the wall, I was thinking:  Okay 50 yards down, 50 more to go. I started to run out of gas in the tank. The nerves started kicking in again realizing that I'm not going to make ECIC again. The final 25 yards I knew I had to give it all I had. I glanced over once again at my competition; he was right next to me. Qualifying for ECIC immediately got of my mind; the team comes first before myself. I put all my power into my legs, and got in front. I slammed and splashed the slippery deck. Immediately, I looked up at the clock in confusion. I didn't know what was happening, I didn't know what lane I was. It showed second place on the royal blue scoreboard; I couldn't see what lane I was in.

"You made ECIC Evan!" my teammate shouted enthusiastically.
    

I thought he was joking to try to make me feel good about my hard work throughout the whole winter break. Once I knew what lane I was in, I looked up at the clock.  Those bright maroon red numbers that said:  lane two, second place, time 1:16.99.

I screamed victoriously while I was splashing the water with excitement.

“How do you feel Evan?” my teammate questioned

"I can't even tell you the feeling, it's indescribable; there is no feeling when you accomplish something you've been driving before the season even started."

ECIC time it is 1:17.00.  I qualified for ECIC for the first time in my life by one hundredth of a second.

I embraced all the congratulations, the hugs from teammates and the high fives, I was getting. I felt like I was on the mountain top that day. At the end of the meet I embraced my mom with a big hug.

She whispered into my ear, "congratulations sweetie your dad would be so proud of what you accomplished tonight."

I started getting emotional

I responded. "I know he would love to be here, he was with me in that race."

I love you dad with all my heart, I know wherever I go, you follow me.