A Bee’s-Eye View | Part 5: Love/Hate

Posted on January 31, 2010

Well, we’re in the home stretch. Swim season is almost over, and life will soon return to something resembling normal. The season is long, and takes up a lot of our time. But I still love it, and I’m so glad my kids are involved with such a great team. And as things wind down, I’ve been thinking about my love-hate relationship with swimming…

Love/Hate

I love our team.
I love our coaches.
I hate that our head coach is retiring this year.
I love the assistant coach who will be taking her place.
I love our other assistant, with his passion and enthusiasm.

I love the start of a new season.
I love seeing all of the old familiar faces again, and getting to chat and catch up on their lives.
I hate that it’s approximately 500 degrees in the bleacher area.
I love seeing the returning swimmers, and seeing how much they have grown.
I love seeing the new faces.
I hate trying to learn all of their names.

I love the predictable routine of the swim season.
I hate driving kids to the pool five days a week.
I love watching my boys practice.
I hate it when they don’t put in as much effort as I know they are capable of.
I love it when one of them finally figures out something that they have been struggling with.
I hate the fact that it doesn’t happen often enough.

I love the first meet of the season.
I love watching everyone getting used to competing again.
I love the pride they have in their team.
I love the way they all cheer for each other.
I hate that meets last forever.

I love cheering for my kids.
I love cheering for everyone else’s kids.
I love screaming so loud that I’m almost hoarse.
I love close races.
I hate it when our swimmer gets out-touched at the wall.

I love watching someone make states.
I love the joy on their face, and the pride on their parents’ faces.
I hate knowing that it’s going to be a long damn time before I ever get to experience that with my boys.
If ever.

I love the yellow personal best ribbons.
I love watching the improvement in their times.
I hate trying to figure out what to do with them all.

I love our annual banquet.
I love “Constant Motion” and “Peanut” and all of the other awards.
I love hearing all of the stats.
I love watching the DVD.
I hate that it means that everything is coming to a close.

I love that swim season is almost over.
I hate that swim season is almost over.

I love our team.



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