(a few weeks ago Samuel was cleaning out his room and decided to try on all of his medals at once!)
This past weekend, Samuel received an award from his swim team naming him as "Most Competitive Swimmer". Each USA Swim team in our state is allowed to select one boy and one girl for this award to be honored at a banquet in the fall. The idea is that the award go to the person who is not necessarily the fastest or best swimmer, but to the one who has the most excitement and drive to compete. So, out of 150 swimmers on our team, Samuel was chosen!
That night as I lay in bed thinking about Samuel and his swimming, I couldn't help but remember him as the little scrappy five year old boy who was kicked off his very first swim team because the coaches didn't think he was good enough at swimming to be on the team. They recommended that he take lessons for another year. Tears came to my eyes, because I now had to break this news to Samuel, and I knew how excited he had been to be on the swim team.
When practice was over, I called him over to talk to me. I tried as gently as possible to tell him what had transpired, then watched as he processed it all in his mind.
"So, I can't be on swim team anymore?" he asked.
"No, Samuel, but you can still swim every day at the pool and we will put you in lessons and you can still go to all the meets and watch your brother and sister swim and then next year you can do it." I answered, hoping it would be enough.
"Okay." he said, then walked away.
There were no tears, at least not from him, and the matter was settled.
Over the next week, though, I noticed something happening. Samuel was not running and playing with all the other siblings who weren't on swim team while their older brothers and sisters practiced. Instead, Samuel was WATCHING the practice. He could not be dragged away. He stood at the fence and watched everything that happened. Then, as soon as the pool opened, Samuel was in the water, trying over and over again to do the things he saw the swim team kids do.
Within two weeks, he was swimming like a pro!
By the next summer, we had moved to a new home and joined a new pool and Samuel was on the swim team. Immediately he was a force to be reckoned with in the pool. He and another little boy raced each other at practices and always came in 1st and 2nd place in the meets. The honors would go back and forth from week to week, but it just made Samuel work harder!
By the following summer, Samuel had moved up an age group and was on the young end, but was still one of the fastest kids in his age group. He asked me to sign him up for every swim clinic that the coaches ran during the summer. I signed him up for all but the flip turns clinic because he was currently only swimming one length of the pool in competition, so there was no need for him to do a flip turn. At the start of that clinic, the coach came over to me and said that Samuel had expressed interest in it and did I want to put him in. I explained to her why I hadn't signed him up for this clinic and then she said, "well, is it okay for him to just watch?"
So, he did, for one full hour.
Then he immediately jumped in the pool and worked on flip turns for the rest of the day until he had perfected a flip turn!
I have learned something from Samuel. When someone tells him he can't do something, he makes a plan to prove them wrong. He expects the best from himself and that quality will serve him well in life, whether he continues swimming or not. He is an incredible young boy who will grow into an even more incredible young man!
We love you Samuel!
