Just a thought from a young 'un. (what do I know, anyway?)

Perhaps one of the reasons why we don't stay young, in our prime, for the rest of our days is because we need to learn something new.

It would be wonderful to be strong and healthy to the end of your days.

But we grow older, lose some of our strength, some of our eyesight, hearing, whatnot. Perhaps this happens because we need to learn. In growing older, we learn patience, long suffering, humility, and gratitude among many characteristics.

We've learned what we needed to learn when we were 18. To continue our journey on to perfection, we need to attain other characteristics. Some of them simply come with age if we take the right attitude and willingness to learn.

Hopefully we are humble and willing enough to learn every lesson and attribute that comes our way. I hope to look back on my life and say, "hey, I did a pretty good job of trying to learn everything I could. I did try to become more humble, more patient, more grateful, etc. When this trial came along, this is what I got out of it. And I became a better person because of it."

Up close...

My coach was so kind to let us have afternoon practice off today. So I took the opportunity to go with my parents to Logan! The best place in the world (actually, it's tied with Pullman) in my opinion. Small towns/cities are always lovely. It was wonderful to see Megan and Reed and the family. Willie always is excellent at posing for pictures. Before you look at the rest, realize that Sam is a really cute baby. Every time I pulled out the camera, he'd scowl at me. Scowl good.
This is a rare scowl-less picture I got. (I didn't try very hard, mind you.)


He's so cute!

A scowl.

Aw, a crown for the wee lad.

Let's try to add a flower!

I was trying to teach Willie how to use the camera. This is what he took. Not bad for a two-year-0ld, eh? The angle is interesting. We get a good look at that nose.

Willie and Grandma both wore hats!

Can I say how much I love Logan? Lots of fields, hay, cows, billy goats, birds, etc.

Good bye Logan. Til next time.

(update: I just maximized this last picture, and there's a silohuette of a family of goats! SCORE! I took the last two pictures as we left Logan on the highway.)

What to do?!

It's hard to decide whether I should act now or later, but I know I must act.

The entire swim team got pulled out of the swim meet this weekend because our hearts were not in it. Now we are practicing twice a day, today and tomorrow (which is saturday, by the way...).

Here's what frustrates me: a couple of teammates were doing great at this meet, and were on the brink of getting sectional cuts (a big swim meet). But because the other teammates refused to get mentally into this meet, we aren't swimming in the meet anymore.

Greg let us know why we're practicing rather than swimming at the meet this morning for about a half-hour, let us give input and talk about it a little. Then we had a nice hard workout.

Here's the kicker: after practice, I put in my hearing aids, and what do I hear? "Oh, yeah! There was this time where I didn't want to swim this race, so I just swam slow, and my coach totally yelled at me...." "Yeah, that's happened to me too!" etc. etc. etc.

And here is this disappointed teammate, watching her opportunity to qualify for sectionals slip away...gone. And the rest of her teammates, TEAMMATES, are just laughing about it, talking about times they purposely swam slow, etc. She turns to me and says, "They don't even care!" and chokes up.

What do I do?! I must do something. Greg said halfway through last season that we are the nicest, most apologetic team he's ever seen. (That's not a good thing.) He wants some teammates to be "b----es." He needs people to be pushing, not necessarily nice, to be willing to push their teammates to the limit, to strive to make their teammates better.

It's been about six months since he said that. And no one has stepped up to the plate. Maybe it's supposed to be me. Maybe I'm the one that's supposed to be the jerk, the one who hammers down on others in an effort to make the team better. Man, I wish it wasn't. But apparently, it's a job that needs to be done, since my teammates are serious (or seemingly so) when Greg lectures and is in the same room, but...I guess we need a couple more "jerks."

I don't know if I can do it. I don't want to do it, that's for sure. I have to figure out a way to go about it to make sure the message gets across, but still get respected. We had a teammate last year who tried to be the one who lectures and pushes, but everyone rolled their eyes at her and made fun of her behind her back. I want to be respected...

At least they can talk about me in front of me. I wouldn't know. :)

Pondering upon Humility

Let's just put it out on the table in clear sight so even the bats can see it: I'm confused.

Pride is often frowned upon. Humility is the opposite of pride, yet it's considered weak and succumbing (according to the dictionary). Humility is considered a virtue, but not appearing weak...

No wonder why so many people in so many histories have had trouble with pride! There apparently are healthy forms of pride, then there's false pride. The lines are blurred: where is pride too much, where is it okay? And speaking of humility, no one wants to appear weak.

Something is missing here.

I think the definition of humility over time has been warped and twisted. Like the word hope. Hope nowadays is an uncertain term, like we hope for some cooler weather (at least I do). At one time, it was actually a certainty, like we hope for better days: we know that they will come, we look forward to better days.

So, that leaves the question: what is the true definition of humility? I believe that it is not quite what we all automatically think of. Humilty is where you recognize you possess talents and gifts, but they aren't all your doing. You were blessed with those abilities. To be humble is to be strong. When you recognize that you are blessed, you recognize where your true strength lies.

Humility also allows us to see truth. If one is very proud in their possessions and their looks, etc., it is much harder for them to see that perhaps they aren't all they thought they were. When one is humble, we are able to see our shortcomings, where we can be better. And because we recognize our weaknesses, we are able to work on them and become even stronger as a person.

To be humble is to be strong.
To be humble is to be able to become even better.
To be humble is to get closer to perfection.

hello Samuel!

All I know is that he was 8 lbs 9 oz.....

O Mah Ha! Olympians here and there!

I thought these pictures would be so cool when I took them, then realized, no that's not necessarily true. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting my camera, and once I remembered it, most of the Olympians were gone. I will remember recognizing and running into Amanda Beard multiple times. She's short. And she's not exactly my hero. Sure, she's fast and all, but... yeah. This is Gary Hall. You may have heard of him. Or you may simply remember him as the olympian who dresses like a boxer before his races, and never fails to amuse. Before he swam, he had a nice gun shot routine. He is too muscly for any other races but the shortest one. Just think of all that dense muscle he has to keep afloat!
This is ONE, and notice I use the word "one" of the athlete areas. Some had computers, games, tvs, lots of food, etc. They were really nice. Too bad I was too uptight and nervous to relax here.

So, yeah. The weather was like this pretty much everyday. Never saw the sun really. It would've been super nice, but humidity was really high. Mmmm...humidity!

And this...is my coach. Notice he has a lovely "5 o' clock shadow" as my teammate jen calls it. Wouldn't it hurt if hair on your face grew that fast?

And this is a random picture I took.

Eye contact

Today I didn't do so well. My coach said that he wasn't disappointed with my swim, but frustrated with me. He sees so much more in all of us swimmers here in Omaha, but we don't see it in ourselves. We're swimming at the pool that will be used for Olympic Trials in early July. There are olympians here. There are some of the world's fastest swimmers here. And on the record board I'm used to seeing the state record, or maybe even the conference record. But now? It's the world record. Instead of being tenths away from the records, I'm seconds. I feel like a fish out of the water. I don't think I belong on this deck. My coach wants me to know and believe that I do. The guy in the grey hoodie is Michael Phelps. One of the great titans in swimming. I warmed up in the same pool as him, swam in the same pool. I forgot my camera, so you'll have to be satisfied with the grainy picture taken with Jen's cell phone. But often I was literally only feet away from him.
And I learned something today. It's high time I realize that I do belong on the same deck as famous olympians. Michael Phelps isn't a dolphin. He doesn't have gills. Sure, he has this perfectly portioned body for swimming (Long torso, huge armspan, short legs), but that alone didn't get him to where he is.
I've seen him so many times on tv, and he seemed immortal, unbeatable. There is no way I could get to where he is. As he was stretching before one of his events, he sat down in a chair and happened to look straight at me in the audience (it helped I was only 15 feet away). Then I realized.

He may be impossibly fast, water his realm. But his attitude, his dream, his confidence in himself is what got him to where he is.

But looking at him, watching him, you realize that he is, in fact, human. He has his triumphs and disappointments like all of us. It's how he reacts to those disappointments, how he moves on and improves that makes him better.

I need to take that attitude. I'm going to walk on deck tomorrow, and I'm going to know I belong here with the olympians. I have potential. I just need to believe in myself, to dream, and then achieve.

But first, I need to believe.

Believe.

Nebraska, Day one: Tornado warning

I've concluded today that storms in the midwest are the best! I was very sad to leave Utah since we were finally experiencing some rain and such. But now? I'm happy that I got to (and still am) experience a serious storm here in Nebraska. It's still raining really hard, and lightning is still flashing everywhere all the time! The lightning has never stopped. It's awesome. Except for the fact that it's likely a tornado will hit. Actually, it's just a tornado watch. The hotel has just called us and let us know that if it changes into a warning, we have to go to the basement. Wow!