Swimming
I remember joining the swim team freshman year and being scared out of my mind. Maybe not exactly scared, but more intimidated. I had been swimming on swim teams since I was 10 years old (I think ...) but swimming for school was much different. However, once the season started I settled down a bit and got to know the people on the team. There were a lot of people on the swim team that I became good friends with and that I thought were great people. Those who knew me in High School know that I was quite odd. Well, I guess I'm still quite odd, but it was a bit different back then. I'm going to give you a perfect example.
One day at swim practice I was swimming in a lane next to my friend Niji. At one point we were taking a break, or we were in between sets or something like that and I sunk down into the water so that just my head was poking out from my mouth up. I whispered "Niiijiiiii" really quietly and slowly and just kept repeating it. She got a little freaked out when she heard it and then saw that it was me and yelled at me to stop. From that day on she called me "Stalker" or rather "Stoookaa" (pronounced as if it was written in Katakana). The Stalker nickname caught on with a bunch of her Japanese-speaking friends (such as Akane) and they all called me that throughout high school, especially when I acted particularly strange.
Another memory from swimming that I would like to share includes two of my best friends from high school, Jen and Siv. I remember that I became friends with Siv, probably before swimming started, but we were on the swim team together and so we hung out a lot. We also both took the train to and from school at that time so we used to walk back to the train station together after swim practice. I think Jen was doing winter chearleading that year and so the three of us would walk to the train together after practice and we also walked to school from the train together in the morning. I don't know why, but these were some of the best and most fun times of my life, these walks to and from the train. I don't remember exact details, but I just remember having fun with the two of them. This didn't last all through school because Siv moved farther downtown at one point so she started taking the train. And Jen started taking a later train and I went earlier. But it was great fun while it lasted. Two things I remember in particular: 1. Jen and Siv were always drinking diet Cokes on our walks, including in the morning before school started, and 2. Jen loved to pull leaves and small branches off of bushes as we would walk by. I would always yell at her about it and tell her to leave the bushes alone. She never did of course, probably just to piss me off.
One day at swim practice I was swimming in a lane next to my friend Niji. At one point we were taking a break, or we were in between sets or something like that and I sunk down into the water so that just my head was poking out from my mouth up. I whispered "Niiijiiiii" really quietly and slowly and just kept repeating it. She got a little freaked out when she heard it and then saw that it was me and yelled at me to stop. From that day on she called me "Stalker" or rather "Stoookaa" (pronounced as if it was written in Katakana). The Stalker nickname caught on with a bunch of her Japanese-speaking friends (such as Akane) and they all called me that throughout high school, especially when I acted particularly strange.
Another memory from swimming that I would like to share includes two of my best friends from high school, Jen and Siv. I remember that I became friends with Siv, probably before swimming started, but we were on the swim team together and so we hung out a lot. We also both took the train to and from school at that time so we used to walk back to the train station together after swim practice. I think Jen was doing winter chearleading that year and so the three of us would walk to the train together after practice and we also walked to school from the train together in the morning. I don't know why, but these were some of the best and most fun times of my life, these walks to and from the train. I don't remember exact details, but I just remember having fun with the two of them. This didn't last all through school because Siv moved farther downtown at one point so she started taking the train. And Jen started taking a later train and I went earlier. But it was great fun while it lasted. Two things I remember in particular: 1. Jen and Siv were always drinking diet Cokes on our walks, including in the morning before school started, and 2. Jen loved to pull leaves and small branches off of bushes as we would walk by. I would always yell at her about it and tell her to leave the bushes alone. She never did of course, probably just to piss me off.
posted by Andrew J at
12:11 PM
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