A shrieking whistle and disrupted water flies around you as you pierce through water that’s colder than a dead man’s leg. At six in the morning the cold temperature hits even harder. You just warmed up and are now running laps. Your arms move robotically as you breathe, then do a stroke, breathe, then plunge your arm back into the ice-cold chlorine water, again and again and again, even as searing pain infects your muscles, as your head pounds with the blood rushing into your ears. After an eternity of sore muscles and frigid pool water, you come up, gasping for air as you peel your goggles back only to see your tough Coach staring down at you. Maybe he’ll say something nice for your hard work?

“Not fast enough,” he says with a disappointed inflection that bites you in the gut. “Definitely not enough to qualify for states.”

Seriously? You were a senior, this was your last year to be great. If you didn’t get your time down in time for states then… then it was over.