Today I will be going over my personal story of how I fell in love with swimming. I started swimming when I was four years old. I was at a friend's house playing in the shallow end, and I did not know how to swim. One of our toys floated away into the deep end. Since I was very young, I was not aware of the dangers of drowning. I jumped off the ledge and grabbed the toy. I instantly sank. I panicked, moving my arms and legs in every direction. I tried to scream, but water got in my lungs. I could hear my friend screaming as he started to panic. I fell unconscious: I woke up on the side of the pool, coughing up water. My friend's father, David, was soaked. I instantly grab my dad and start crying. Later on, I hear about what David had done for me, and I thank him. My parents were terrified of the fact that I almost drowned behind them, and they wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for my friend Zac.
A couple of weeks later, my parents approached me and told me that I was going to get swim lessons at our local team called Rose Bowl Aquatics. I was terrified of the water. I locked myself in my room and told them that I wouldn't unlock the door until they canceled the swim lessons. At that moment, my father said one sentence that changed the course of my entire life. He said, "Axel when you fall, you get right back up. You can't give up because of what you fear. Fear will only hold you down." Those words inspired me to face what I feared most: the water.
When I first started the swim lessons, I was afraid of going underwater since it felt as if I was drowning all over again. Little by little, my fears of the water washed away, and I loved swimming again. I swam with the same team for seven years until I moved to Massachusetts. Moving to Massachusetts was a challenge for me since I had to find the right team. I have lived in Massachusetts for the past four years. The biggest challenge for me was adapting to an enclosed environment. In California, I swam outdoors every day. In Massachusetts, I swam inside, and the air was different and harder to breathe. I joined Charles River Aquatics(CRA). CRA is the reason why I keep loving the sport. Before I joined CRA, I had been on a plateau for two years, and I was ready to give up. The team spirit at CRA was like no other team I had been on before. The team helped me get better, and that is how I got to where I am today. It has been about two years now since I joined CRA, and I love the team.