Last Sunday, I along with 5 other East swimmers participated in an open water event. This was not organized by the school and we each had to pay an entry fee. I competed in the School Team category (4 x 1000m) with 3 other swimmers and the two others swam the individual 1000 meters. My team came second in our category as well as all of us individually placing in the top 25 out of 300+ swimmers.

Going into this event I was a bit nervous as this was the first time for me swimming out in the ocean far away from the shore. I was not sure how fast to start off and how much energy I would have left. I was also rather frustrated as the event organizers were not very clear about who was swimming when. My nervousness only grew as we got into the water to swim to the starting line. However, after we started swimming, I forgot about being nervous and only focused on swimming. After finishing, I felt a sense of accomplishment as I had finished the race and placed rather high.

In my opinion this experience fits under learning outcome 2 as this was my first open water race and therefore a challenge. It also fits under learning outcome 3, as I was the ‘Team Leader’ in the sense that I organised our entries and handled the entry payments as well as the collection of all of our packets we got. It was challenging at times to organise receiving and giving things from and to the other 3 team members during school leading up to the event. But in the long run I learned a lot about leadership and how to overcome challenges relating to it and in the future I will be prepared for these challenges and know how to prepare for them.

Overall the experience was a lot of fun and I hope that it will help me in the future in having the confidence to take on new challenges, as well as make me more enthusiastic in joining other open water events and more willing to take charge of a group of people.