Just Keep Swimming - Swimming Through Life

As I spend more time running, biking, and lifting weights, I can\’t help but think about how much more enjoyable it would be if I could be SWIMMING! Before, I found the land sports to be much more of a side thing to my swimming. But now that I can\’t swim, I\’m starting to get bored with my workouts! After all, how am I supposed to \”swim through life\” if I\’m not swimming?? Not only do I miss swimming in general, but I\’ve been thinking a lot about the wonderful memories I have made through the sport. The places I\’ve been, the friends I\’ve made, and the personal goals I have met.

So, I have decided to take another trip down memory lane! Starting with my time in high school swimming on the Watertown Area Swim Club. I started swimming with WASC when I was ten years old, and swam with them all through middle school and high school. All of my best friends were from the swim team, and I was able to travel all over the state of South Dakota and make tons of friends from other teams as well. The memories I made with the swim team are some of my favorite, and I could literally go on and on about all the fun times we had together.

\"\" — Dad caught my concentration before one of my races. Way back when I used to write my events on my hand!

\"\" — The four relay girls! We were always on the same relay, and always got fun, matching suits to swim in 🙂

\"\" — Swim friends from my team, and other teams as well. It was always a fun time when we were all able to get together.

\"\" — Who could forget when us senior swimmers showed up to our last home meet in purple, sparkly dresses??

\"\" — I\’m glad my dad was always sneaking around with the camera to catch moments like this!

Flash forward to my college years, where I joined the George Mason Swim Club at George Mason University. Not only did I meet a ton of new friends, but I was able to travel all over the East coast for swim meets, and I even got to travel to a new country!

\"\" — My first ever college meet at Rutgers University in New Jersey. We had a tradition to take a picture with the school statue at every meet we went to 🙂

\"\" — The swim meet at UNC was one of my favorites!

\"\" — During my freshman year of college, I met these two dudes. Andrew on the far left was a foreign exchange student from Malta, and Alec in the middle was my best friend all through school. We were the three amigos while Andrew was at school with us. And after our first year of school, Andrew was nice enough to invite the two of us to visit him in Malta! We were able to swim and explore, and it is by far my favorite swim memory! 🙂

\"\" — Over the years, our team continued to double in size, and the memories we made kept getting better and better. This meet was at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

\"\" — Eventually, we got a swim club banner and started a new tradition! This meet was at the University of Maryland. They always had a nice meet set up, and it wasn\’t too far away from Fairfax.

\"\" — During my senior year, we had one of our biggest groups to date attend a swim meet at NC state. It was so much fun to swim and hang out with all of these guys. There was never a dull moment!

\"\" — This was my senior year Nationals team, where we went down to compete in the Club Nationals meet in Atlanta, Georgia. I was fortunate enough to compete at the Nationals meet all four years, and it was always a blast. Lots of swimming memories made, as well as many memories made exploring all Atlanta has to offer.

\"\" — Even after I graduated from school, I continued to swim with the Patriot Master\’s team at GMU. I didn\’t compete nearly as often anymore, but I had tons of fun swimming with some amazing people. Here is my little lane family shortly before I moved away. I miss them all dearly!

\"\" — I\’ve included this pic in tons of blog posts in the past, and I\’m sure I will continue to share it in many more to come. I love it! My friend caught me in the zone shortly before my 100 backstroke at my last Nationals Meet. Ready to kick some booty!

So, even though I can\’t swim for the foreseeable future, at least I can look back at all the memories I have made and remember all the fun times I\’ve had through swimming. It makes me that much more excited to get back in the water and make even more memories in the years to come. I just hope that time comes soon, because this girl can only take so much running!!

Also, if anyone has any fun ideas to mix up my workouts and make them more interesting, I\’m all ears! Hope everyone is staying healthy out there!

Until next time 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger

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