Support Systems at School
Being away from home for the first time can be very rough at times. One of the hardest things for me has been being away from my family. Leaving a home where there was always support to being on your own is tough. There is almost a sense of loneliness to it. However I have been lucky enough to find a support system here at Babson, and it makes being a freshmen a 100% easier!
Coming into this year, I knew I would have a support group by being on the school’s swim team; however I would never have expected how amazing being on the team is. Through swimming, I have been able to get a lot of things that I would not get otherwise. I have gotten a tutor for stats, a bunch of free stuff and above all a support system.
The team in a way is a family, a sometimes dysfunctional family, but one nonetheless. I know my teammates are here for me no matter what just like my family at home is. Having this type of support, I feel, is crucial to be successful while at college. Without them I probably would have not been able to get through my first collegiate swim meet last Saturday.
So as I mentioned, last Saturday we had our first swim meet. I was put in the 1000 yard and 500 yard freestyle as wells as the 400 free relay (don’t worry, I only had to swim a 100 yards of that, which is very short compared to the other races). Going into it I was beyond nervous! However I did not let anyone know this, I didn’t even want to tell my parents how nervous I was but them being my parents they figure it out.
I wasn’t fooling anyone though, everyone knew. Before the meet started though a bunch of the team was helping me calm my nerves. I was getting pep talks, people were cracking jokes and many of them said that they would be impressed if I just finished the race. Someone even told me a story how once at a meet they only did 175 yards butterfly of his 200 yard race and he did the last lap freestyle. All of this made me feel so much better, instead of my first college meet it felt like just another practice.
During my races I could see everyone cheering for me and encouraging me to swim faster. This means so to me when I’m racing. Being a distance swimmer my races usually do not get that much cheering since they are LONG. Seeing this gives me the extra push I need to finish my race and swim even faster. The love did not stop after the race either. Once I got out of the pool I was getting hugs and congratulations from everyone on the team. Even throughout the rest of the day I was getting compliments on how well I did.
Though the Women Beavers lost to Clark, I felt I won. This meet proved to me how important it is having a support system. I probably would have gotten through the meet fine without the teams help, but it made it so much easier. There is a family away from home for everyone, you just need to go out and find them <3
And just in case you’re curious on how the meet went, here’s the results!
http://babsonathletics.com/sports/w-swim/2012-13/files/121020mwsw.pdf