No More Unicorns

My 7 year old daughter E was going to artistic swimming camp again. This was the second round of camp since she did something similar last summer. She really loved it and they were doing the same skills and routines as the previous year. What wasn’t the same turned out to be the most surprising thing - E said no more unicorns on her clothes (selectively)!

E loves unicorns. She constantly wishes for one and sometimes I do to in the off chance that one actually appears to make her happy. The fact that she was saying she didn’t want as many unicorns on her clothes was a big change. I hadn’t realized that this was all connected to her changes in what kind of swimsuit she was wearing to artistic swimming camp.

When I dropped her off at the beginning of the camp, she was still wearing her rash guards. It makes sense to wear the rash guard because they were practicing outdoors. It was pretty sunny and the rash guards made it so much easier to slather sunscreen on the remaining areas to protect her skin. In the middle of the week, she wanted to wear the swimsuit that she was wearing to pre-competition swimming. That suit was supposed to make her faster (according to her pre-competition coach), but most importantly, the older kids were wearing it as well.

My wifeMy wife noticed this change and pointed out that the swimsuit choice was definitely influenced by the older kids. Apparently that was the most important factor and she wanted to fit in. That's also where the no unicorn mindset was coming from as well. She didn't want as many unicorns on her clothes going forward. Of course, she was able to share her opinion and we would factor that into the clothes that we bought, but this was a shocking change!

I remember E asking a long time ago why grown-ups usually wore boring colors, such as brown, black, gray, blue, and green. She noticed that grown-ups didn't wear colorful clothing, and she never wanted to be that boring. The fact that she was finally heading towards that seemed direction felt like she was growing up in a flash.

Fast forward to the end of the week, I wasn't able to originally make her performance. I had a long meeting that was scheduled over that time, and I was really sad about it. On the day of the meeting, it was cut short…so I jumped in the car and zoomed to the facility. I was able to get there before the performances started and luckily, she was also going last since she was in the youngest group. I was able to watch all of the performers and when E got in the pool, I was excited to see what she could do!

Her routine was the same, but she definitely improved on her technique and skills. I could notice her turns, her rhythm, and just a general strength in the water being much better than the last time she was doing the routine. It was great to see and I was so proud of her! One of her goals was also to make the artistic swimming team and I felt like after the performance, she would have a good chance of that happening.

We were already scheduled to do the tryouts a few weeks later. E was nervous about it, but I knew she was ready. She was working so hard in her swim classes, the artistic swimming camp, and her pre-competition swimming practices. As a kid though, she had her doubts. Turns out, E did so well during artistic swimming camp that the coach said she didn’t need to try out. She made the team! That was her wish and even though she wouldn’t have as many unicorns on her clothes in the future, it seems like unicorns are still watching out for her (and granting her wishes!).