Team

My team's annual year-end banquet and awards ceremony took place last night. As a senior, it was my last. To be totally honest, it made me very sad. It really accentuates the end of my college career. I don't want it to end.

I know I'm moping, but it isn't like I don't have a good reason. I've tried my hardest to use my time in college as best as I can. I've tried to have as much fun as I could, to leave this place without any regrets. The regrets that I already have, I've tried to rectify. For the most part, I've been successful. I don't think it's possible to move through life without those 'should haves' and 'would haves'. Do I have more than most? Maybe. Thinking about it makes me very sad, so I try to avoid the subject.

Back to the swim team banquet. Swimming has been such an integral part of my life for so long. I lived and breathed the sport for so long. These past two years, though, with these guys, on this team... they have been fantastic. They are such a dynamic, fun group of people. They work hard, they play hard, and they drink even harder. And I'm going to miss that. I've really come to identify myself with them - I am a swimmer. I am a member of a team. Being a member of a team, especially one so closely-knit as this one, is an incredible feeling. We're like family, our bonds forged with chlorine and alcohol.

One of the younger members of the team was nice enough to put together a photo-retrospective of the past few years. It was nice to remember some of those great times. There are so many characters, so many friends, that I hope to never forget. I'm going to miss them. I'm going to miss that feeling, that comaraderie. I'm going to miss working hard to push others to excel. Will life ever be this much fun again? I'm sure I'll find something to fill that void - I'll keep in shape, I'll focus my energies elsewhere - but it'll never feel the same.