catching up

so I've gone all summer without a computer, so I must catch up on all my missed blogs from the summer. They may be out of order. My apologies.

First: Swim Team Banquet. 7/25

Tonight was one of the best nights of my summer. I spent it at Forest Hills pool with the best team ever. I absolutely love that team. I've grown up with every my age that swims there, and the coaches have coached me since I was 7. Tonight was our awards banquet. This past weekend was the big City-County meet where all of the summer teams compete. Although I’ve been an Oscar for ten years, this was my first time swimming at city-county. When I was little, the weekend of city-county was always during my mom’s “birthday week” so we could never go. So this year was my first year ever swimming it, and it was crazy.
I had to work my mom’s shifts at the meet because my parents were out of town at Harry’s baseball tournament. A parent has to work at least 2 shifts at the meet per family. It wasn’t that bad though, one on Friday, and one on Saturday. The Saturday one was early in the morning, like 7 AM, so I got to see the 10 and unders swim, which is one of my favorite parts because I get to cheer for them. City-County was fun, but the best was tonight.
At the beginning of the banquet, they gave out awards. They first announced how we did at City-County (5th place, Woot! Woot!) and then they gave out the special awards. There was the “Heart of a Champion” award, they gave one for every age group. My girl Anna go that one for the 11-12s. Next, they gave out the Junior and Senior Oscar award. Those are like the biggest and best awards you can get. Junior Oscar goes to a younger swimmer for team spirit, heart, etc. and the Senior oscar goes to an older swimmer. So they announced the Junior Oscar, it was to some younger girl who had great sportsmanship, always helped out, etc. Then for the Senior Oscar coach Lucy got up there and said, “This girl isn’t always so enthused to get in the water in the morning, and she complains quite often, and is sometimes a bit of a chatterbox…” and EVERYONE started looking at me. “She’s always cheering on the little swimmers and helping out, and although she’s been on the team for so long, this weekend was her first City-County meet!” and I totally knew she was talking about me. I was so in awe when they called my name; I love this team so much and it was awesome to be recognized. People kept telling me all night how much I deserved it, which made it that much better. I love this team, and all of the people feel like family. I’m so sad it’s over. I’ll miss all of the swimmers, all of the coaches, and even all of the parents that make up this team.
Until next summer….