A pipe dream
The Summer Olympics are just over about a week ago. I sat mesmerized by watching all the atheletes and their amazing gifts of determination, strength, and commitment tobtheir sport. During the olympics there were commercials that show children dreaming of being an Olympian. I was one of those kids. I wanted to work and train hard for an opportunity to be an olympian in swimming. I won so many ribbons and metals the summer I was 11 and 12. I REALLY wanted to try and make it. But it wasnt to be. Mom told me I would get too muscular for a girl. In other words, you would be an ugly muscular girl. It took the wind out of my sail. I was expected to be a fashionable girly girl. It broke my spirit to give up the sport I LOVED. Each morning of those 2 summers I woke up at 6:00, got dressed for practice, rode my bike a coiple of miles, swam I dont know how many miles, then rode home. That was practice no 1. At 11:00 I did the same routine...5 days a week with meets on Saturdays....
