It’s always hard when a child decides to leave an extracurricular after having spent years (even a decade or more) with an activity. The friendships, the routines and even the parent-friends are all affected. My daughter walked away from her cello when she couldn’t keep up music and swimming together anymore. Of the two, swimming took up a lot more time, not just on the deck and in the pool, but competition, regional meets, not to mention the 4:30am wake-up time for practices. There were weeks when my daughter swam six times a week! Her life became mine.
Parallel to all this, the intensity of the junior grade at high school demanded more. Even though she fully recovered from tendonitis injury, she weighed the options and prioritized. She wanted to go to a good university and contemplate international schools. So she made the decision to leave her beloved extracurricular activity as the junior year began.
It’s always hard when a child decides to leave an extracurricular. There were weeks when my daughter swam six times a week! Her life became mine.
Many of her swim friends she’s known since she was 6 years-old have either left the sport already or contemplating same. Really, only a handful who have academic arrangements with the swim team are staying on for more serious training. The swim club was also not surprised either. In fact, offboarding a swimmer was quick and efficient with accounts being settled within a week. Seem the already efficient administration of the swim school is quite adept at divesting students at this age as many of its very dedicated athletes focus on their schooling.
My daughter was not sad. While she had literally spent more than a decade of her young life at this sport, it served her well. The focus, the commitment, the training, the friendships, the anxieties and all the blood, sweat and tears, have been badges of honor that’s taught her many life lessons. Whatever challenges came before is preparation for her future.
She walked—nay, swam—away not having given up on something, but rather recognizing what it taught her. There will be new arenas. New stages. And in whatever venue it will be, her memories of the decade plus of swimming training will forever be with her.
