Olympian

My 6 year old daughter E completed two separate weeks of artistic swimming. She loves it so much because it combines her passion of dance with her love of swimming. She is indeed a fish in the water and loves being in the pool. Don’t get me started on how much she also loves dance - we have to convince her that we can’t take her to all the different dance classes she wants to go to. When you combine those two things, you get a perfect activity that can continue to build on her athleticism.

After watching the Summer Olympics and learning about artistic swimming (or synchronized swimming back in my day), she immediately said that was what she wanted to try. She also wanted to go to the Olympics for it. I love big dreams, but reminded her to just work hard at whatever she does. My wife on the other hand decided to look up camps and signed E up for the summer. Here we were at the end of two separate week-long camps and E was so happy with how things went!

Between the first and second week. you could really see big jumps in improvement. She was one of the youngest swimmers out there, but she was determined to learn the routine and moves. When she didn’t understand what the teachers were saying, she often peeked underwater to look at the demonstration to grasp the moves. After seeing that the performance costumes were shiny with glitter and gems, it was a done deal. E wanted to be an Olympian. Hopefully we can just take things step by step because I just want to see my kids work hard at something no matter what it is. When you do that and give yourself a purpose, that’s what makes life fulfilling. And the beauty is you can define that purpose and change it!

I talked to my wife that I admired how E sets big goals (even while not fully grasping what that entails or how hard it actually is to get to the Olympics). Some point along the way, I stopped having these huge and crazy goals. It migrated more towards dreams where I would like to achieve and work towards my dream, but it still seems distant and almost unfathomable to start. Kids don’t have that block and they full range of possibilities are ahead of them. It’s an amazing thing to witness and to remind myself that I need to be more like them. Set big goals and work towards it. And take my own advice - to work hard at it.