I couldn’t even finish any of the one hundreds coach told us to start with. My flips were getting worse, I kept getting water in my nose, my eyes were burning and my brain stung like crazy. I can't do this, I started to think, I could feel my cheeks filling with redness and I started to shake in from my nerves. A  few of the girls noticed that I stopped  and asked me what was wrong, I explained to them that I was having an anxiety attack, I couldn’t see my mom and it was getting worse. One of the girls told me to just think of it as practice and you will be fine. I took a deep breath and continued on my free one hundreds, I  attempted to do flips and they were that bad I wasn't getting water up my nose anymore.

The captains on the team told us warm up was over and I was so relieved, my thighs right above my knee caps hurt so bad my muscles were so tight. So finally we had to do stretches, in the background I could hear the girls on the other team splashing in the water as the practice their dives and strokes, I look over and see the only girl on my team for diving do a flip into the water and make a splash as tiny as a tadpole could make. When stretches were over we finally got our team suits and caps right before it started, everyone rushed to the locker room to change and you could hear the chatter of the girl getting pumped for the first meet of the season. When we came out of the locker room we looked like a joke standing across the pool from the other team of forty-five girls compared to our fifteen. We all stood quietly and respectfully as the national anthem was sung by a girl on the other team. As she hit the high notes I got goose bumps all over my skin.

It was time to start there was three events before mine to I had plenty of time to get ready and shake off my nerves, having my mom and cousin there for support helped a lot. As the first few events happened you could hear the screaming and yelling of the girls out of the water pushing the ones who were swimming. Before my event, fifty free, I asked for the bucket. The bucket is a paper waste basket that has been on the swim team since two-thousand-one, when a senior graduates they get to sign it, the purpose of the bucket is to say any thoughts that you and into it and let out your stress or whatever is on your mind. I put my face into it and started to say “you got this joe you can do it it's just a fifty.” Finally, it’s time for me to race my heart is pounding in my ears, the announcers start with who is up for auburn, I'm in lane one so he starts with me and goes on. I’m one the starting block, I put my goggles on and take a deep breath, “ Take your mark” I hear very loudly then a loud buzz and lead into the water hands and head first. As soon as I touch the water I kicked my legs as fast as I could to glide when my hands touch the surface I start to paddle as fast as I could. Every four strokes I would turn my head for air, I sprinted to one end of the pool and hurried as fast as I could back as soon as I touched the wall I looked up to see my time, thirty-eight seconds. I came in last but not far behind the other girls, when I got out of the pool girls congratulated me and told me I did really good for my first year.