Sweet Shoppe Designs

Photoless templates by Cindy Schneider
Eat My Bubbles by Karah Fredericks and Lauren Reid
Photo corners by Katie Pertiet

TFL! Kellie
The summer before my junior year of college, I decided that I wanted to join the swim team. You know, OBU’s NATIONALLY RANKED swim team...Right. I mentioned it to my then boyfriend, David, who laughed and said, “Yeah, right.” And being a very strong willed sort of gal, I purposed in my heart that I WOULD, oh yes, join that swim team, even if it killed me.

And let’s be honest, it nearly did. I like to think that I spent the first few weeks of swim practice learning how to drown without dying. It was quite an accomplishment for me. I gained a new appreciation for life, what with all the near death experiences I was having.

I had one friend on the swim team, William, and he was such a source of encouragement for me. What really kept me going, though, was all the people who were NOT my friends. I couldn’t quit. They didn’t know me before I started swimming, but if I quit, I would always be a loser to them, and I just couldn’t let them think that this Jesus follower was a quitter. So I persevered.

It was without a doubt the most challenging year of my life. It was physically exhausting, of course, but it was mentally and emotionally challenging as well. For the first time in my entire life, I sucked at something.

And it turned out that failure was a great experience for me. I learned to depend on God in a way that I never needed to before when I was so capable. It humbled me, and truth be told, I needed some humility. It stretched me and grew me to be in a situation where I knew nothing and no one and hadn’t earned anyone’s respect.

By the end of the year, not only was I a better, more mature person, but my circle of friends had grown to include a team of swimmers who were so totally different than me. The swim team had this reputation for being wild partiers; so not me, and yet I could have fun at their parties and be a part of their lives and feel completely comfortable.

I loved the self discipline it gave me, the friendships and, of course, the totally hot bod. It was totally worth getting up at 5:15 in season for morning practice, and totally worth the endless laps around the football field and up and down the bleachers, because what I gained from the experience was priceless.