Athlete

My mom has always told my sister and I that we were athletes.
Granted, we were competitive swimmers since around the age of 5 in my mom's eyes, but realistically we joined a club team when we were 7.

Through the years I have participated in a lot of different sports. I was a swimmer, soccer player, runner, hiker, went to tennis and diving camps, danced for a year or two, did gymnastics for a few months, attempting to play volleyball, beat my Thai classmates at badminton, but all of that was before I went into high school. I have tried it all and loved every moment but to revise what my mom told me, I was a great kid athlete.

But, oh how that has changed in a week.

I found myself the school's involvement fair last Wednesday. About 90% of the booths reflected some humanitarian effort or a very effective labeled sorority I should join. 10% were basic clubs like frisbee, the Jewish Frat houses that gave out free falafel, and vegetarian clubs.

I had been looking for some sort of dance club the whole day. Waltzing? Swing dance? Salsa? Nada. So I went on to find something physical and active. The tennis club turned out to be super competitive and not for the beginners. And besides I don't actually own a racquet so...I moved on. Eventually, I made my way to the Crew Club. Not stage crew, the rowing type of crew. Knowing that it was an intense, prestigious, and sometimes the only way to get into an ivy league type of sport- I knew I would probably get shot down faster than the tennis club did to me earlier.

To my surprise, crew has a very high learning curb and novices are highly encouraged to join!
And thus I immediately signed up.

Practice started that Saturday where we learned how to use the rowing machines (they called them ergs, probably because whenever you erg, you say "erg" as everyone hates ergs (or it's short for ergometer (either or really)). We got in the eight person boat with the varsity coxswain and off we went...clumsily.
.
Practices have been three days a week so far, starting at 4:25am. Tuesday I couldn't really feel half my legs. Today two people threw up after the fitness test. Crew is very tough. But has it's rewards. I'm already developing friends through crew, once we were out on the water a second time I got the hang of it, I can actually do push-ups now, and I get to be out on the water all the time!
This means I am now qualified as a (one week experienced) college athlete which is a little strange. I always assumed that "college athletes" were gigantic football players, recruited volleyball players, and national champions. But here I am- my butt getting kicked at 4am with no experience of butt-kicking practices in a long time-standing among them.
And thus another revision must be made to my mother's statement, "I am a (one week so far!) college athlete."

On another note, please feel free to suggest any topics that I should write about! Anything about DC, college, my life, opinions on underwater basket weaving, whatever your heart desires!