Becoming an Athlete
by Caroline Hellman

One of my not-too-fond memories if of a trip down to Baltimore, Maryland, to visit my father's family. We were in the middle of a delicious meal at my grandmother's house, and I began to wheeze. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop wheezing, even with medication. It was very frustrating as a little girl to not be able to run around with my cousins. Or rather, I ran around with my cousins, but then I was always told to stop and relax and sit down because I would be wheezing.

It's kind of similar to the kid in the movie GOONIES, who carries around his inhaler. Although the number of times he used his inhaler always seemed a bit excessive to me.

Anyway, you might be wondering--ok, so she had asthma as a child, she still has asthma, but where's the athlete component?

Here's where the asthma got a lot better. In seventh grade I joined the school swim team. I was ambivalent about it through midway through my eighth grade season, when I began working hard and realized that I was getting significantly better. I also realized that I wasn't having as much trouble breathing, and while running still made me cough and hack and gasp for air and gave me pains in my chest, swimming was an absolute breeze on my lungs. What was more, I was actually good at the sets in practice when we could only breathe once a lap, or once every 2 laps, or whatever it was.

Swimming saved me.

Gradually, slowly, incrementally, I became an athlete. I don't think that one identifies as an athlete automatically or instantaneously; it is an earned creed, an earned identification. After my eighth grade season, instead of going to tap class and instead of lying around at home watching "Swan's Crossing" on the then-WB, I headed to swim practice. I started swimming year-round, and I really loved it.

The pool was a home away from home. I fit in there, and the disparate group of people who came together for practice truly changed my life.