More On Swim Team

I'm no good at waking up on time for things. I'm just not. It's not really my fault. It's just that sometimes, I don't really have a choice. I'll set my alarm clock, but then in the morning I'll wake up at ten as if it hadn't gone off. And it's not like I woke up and turned the alarm clock off because I was lazy; rather, I didn't wake up and I apparently turned it off without knowing it.

So yeah, it's a common occurrence for me to be late to swim team or to miss it entirely. And yes I understand that my swim coaches are upset with it (as am I, I wish I was more capable of being there on time). But when my bike broke down this morning and I had to use my little brother's midget-esque one to get to Lowell pool, I thought the water balloon that met me on the way in, with me fully clothed with electronics in my pockets, was a bit excessive. They thought it was hilarious.

As I took off my sogging clothes and put on my swimsuit, I could hear them shouting at me to hurry up and get in the pool. Ugh, I though to myself, it's seven-thirty! Shouting at me is not going to get me to go any faster! But they of course still shouted at me and got their water balloons ready for the next boy to show up late as I walked up the stairs and dived into the cool water.

There were three lanes for us that morning, as there usually was, and I quickly moved over to the far lane with my two good buddies, David and Lucas. With all respect that's due, I am usually a faster swimmer then them. So it was kind of frustrating when the swim coaches moved me to the back of the line. I asked them why and they said it was because they wanted us to swim that way. I just don't get that. We're swimming in the lane - aren't we the best people to decide what the order should be? If that isn't pointless micromanagement then I don't know what is.

Frustrations and annoyances kept piling on as they yelled at us and made us swim more whenever we forgot to to flips, or turns. Morale was low and I was pretty mad by the time I got out of the pool. The fact is, and I'm not exaggerating, my swim team coaches are the most anal-retentive people I know, and it is really getting to irk me. And whenever we complain they ask us, "Why did you sign up for swim team if you didn't want to swim?"

And here's my answer - "Sure we signed up for swim team because we wanted to swim. But nowhere did we say that we wanted to have to put up with getting up at seven in the morning every weekday, getting screamed at for not doing flip turns, yelled at for not being in the pool, and soaked for not being on time all for the sake of swimming! That stuff has nothing to do with the swimming - those things we could do without."

It seems to get worse with the coaches all the time. If it weren't for the fact that swimming is so healthy and such a good habit for me, I would really want to just quit swim team to get away from them. But I'll have to just keep swimming and try to show up on time for the remainder of July.