You have taught me...

Dear Swimming,

Thank you for all that you have given me over the past fourteen years. The lessons you have taught me are countless.

You have taught me how to manage my time. Only a swimmer knows how to spend 7 hours at the pool, 7 hours in school, and keep up with college classes.

You have taught me dedication. Swimming requires more dedication that a bystander would believe. It requires dedication to hear that alarm go off at 4:55, to only hit snooze till 5:15 before knowing you have to get out of bed, to take homework to the pool to study in between dry-land sets.

You have taught me a new definition of endurance. Physical endurance is a given in any sport. But how many sports require the mental endurance that swimming demands? The endurance to keep going when you only make the interval by a second. The endurance to keep trying, in the pool, and out.

You have taught me patience. Patience with teammates when they know every button to push, and push them anyways. Patience with coaches when "I just can't do this" doesn't register in their vocabulary. Patience that rolls over into life.

You have taught me how to be a role-model. Swim teams involve athletes of all ages, eyes are always watching and mimicking your every move. You showed me how to embrace that, and form relationships with the kids who are looking up to you.

You have taught me how to fail, and to fail with grace. Adding time is commonplace in swimming. In my world, adding time is short of perfect, and short of perfect is failing. But even after failing, you have taught me how to pull yourself out of the water and how to get ready for the next race.

You have taught me how to believe in myself. How to believe that I can do it, that I can be my best at all times.

You have taught me how to forget. When I hit that water the world fades away and nothing else matters except me and the water. Nothing. There isn't anything from the day that stands in the way of me and my love for those 2 hours and 15 minutes. Nothing.

You have taught me how to feel. There's a difference between moving water, and feeling the water move. Only you could have taught me that.

You have taught me how to laugh, and laugh at myself. When the practice seems impossible, when my teammates seem beyond frustrating, you have taught me to laugh and smile.

You have taught me confidence. That little girl you first met had none. The girl you are sending back out into the real world has plenty. You don't need to worry about that.

You have taught me how to trust. I've never been too good at that, but you have guided me along that road to trusting my coaches and my peers.

You have taught me who I am. You've made me into the fun-loving, bubbly, genuinely happy-go-lucky girl I am today. You have inspired me to be the person that I am, and to love myself for that.

But more than any of these, you have taught me how to love. To love swimming, and to know when that love is being transformed into bigger and better things. Although my love for being a swimmer is gone, my love for the sport is still strong. My love is now just in a different form, having the chance to be little kids' first inspiration to fall in love with swimming. One coach somewhere first sparked that love in me, and look at where it has taken me now. I couldn't ask for anything more, to give back to a sport that has given me so much.

Love always (and yes, I do mean always), Kylie