Just keep swimming

Taylor Reeves, a sixth grader at Pin Oak Middle School, has loved to swim since age 2 and feels inspired by the family-like atmosphere on her swim team.

My family lives near a neighborhood pool, and my mom has always encouraged my brother, sister and me to use it as our second home. Almost every day in the summer, we swim for hours on end. My mom said that even at age 2, I loved to swim. I started swim team at age 4 because even though I could do freestyle, the easiest of all the strokes, the pool wouldn’t let me join earlier because of my age.

I started as a Maplewood Marlin, where I met my best friends, Katherine Schwartz, Avery Cooney, Sarah Sparks, Mary Catherine Jurica and Ann-Marie Jurica. At my first meet, I was doing one lap of freestyle, and my mom was there cheering for me. She says that once I saw her, I promptly stopped swimming, treaded water in the lane, and yelled, “Stop cheering for me!” My mother was so sure I would throw a “hissy fit” that she sprinted away from the pool, not coming back until the end so I wouldn’t quit.

I have been swimming every summer since then with Maplewood, and with the University of Houston Coogs during the winter for the last two years. I have gone to roughly 70 meets. Some of them have incredibly cold water (like All Stars) or annoying birds (the meets at Greatwood), but I wouldn’t trade a moment for the world!

Every summer I look forward to the start of swimming. I love how everyone comes back different than the year before, but they’re still the same person you have always known, if that makes sense. When new people join, they’re shy at first, but they usually give in to the family-like quality of the team in about a week. Your team members are always there for you. If you’re anxious before a race, someone is always there to pour a cup of water on your head and make a silly joke about it. In all, swimming is one of the best parts of my life. I have a whole second family that will always be there for me.

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