INTO THE WATER By Branden Wang

            Help! Help! Help! I yelled during the bitter winter of 2009 at the Hunter College swimming pool. The water felt colder than the blizzard blast. Coach Alex swam faster than a killer whale and saved the other student, John, and me. This experience was the electrifying start of my swimming career...

When I was about five, I started swimming classes at the Hunter College. Coach Alex was an impressive instructor; he swam swiftly through the water like a jet plane. I went there for five months, which was one session. However, we stopped going there because the commute was terribly terrible, so we had to find a closer swimming school.

No need to explain the next place we tried and hated! The conditions were extremely dreadful. I was there only once.

After going to that awful place, we took private lessons with Jenny, my nanny’s niece. I learned floating, kicking, streamlining, freestyle breathing, and breathing under water. I had lessons from her for the summer, but we stopped going there because she had to leave for college. Now I feel enriched with basic swimming knowledge.

My dad went to the Flushing Meadow Aquatic Center’s swimming school and tried to sign me up, but they were full. They suggested us to go to Gateway, a swimming school that rented their space. We walked over to Gateway and signed me up for two sessions. Half a year later, my dad asked me if I wanted to try Swimania. I was stubborn at first because I like sticking with the familiar. But then, I wanted to change swimming schools because Gateway talks too much.

Swimainia is BOSS, my way of saying THE BEST. Swimainia is the current swimming school I am in. I have progressed tremendously after one year. I now know freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly (still working on). Sometimes, if we complete our lesson earlier than usual, we can have free time and play around. We can have fun! We can be kids! Because we swim more, I learn how to swim quicker. Swimania is BOSS.

Then on August 14, 2014, at the Baruch College Summer Camp, there was a one-on-one breaststroke race between two swimmers. The competitors were The Freestyle Master and The Breaststroke Master. The Masters dived off the boxes and into the pitch-dark eight-feet water. They quickly kicked themselves up to the horizon of the mighty deep water. The Breaststroke Master immediately started the breaststroke with streamline position. He then pushed myself with his arms and feet to the forbidden border of the deep end and the shallow end. His feet snapped like a lean bamboo-green frog. Both Masters bolted to the end, neck to neck, until they were a yard away from the starting point, which was the end as well.  I, The Breaststroke Master, won by a tiny inch!

I finally became the best breaststroke swimmer. Being the best takes time, patience, time, hard work, and MORE time. Everything I have gone through paid off.