My 5th SEASAC Swimming, held in Malaysia by Garden international. Hyped up to be one of the biggest swimming school events of the year, right up next to SNAGs. In my opinion, SEASAC is a team bonding meet. If we’re being honest our team trains the hardest and hence we are the fastest team… by a long way. So much so that I had almost 0 doubt that we would come first. This is somewhat a problem for me. While I was training very hard to swim well… I couldn’t help but feel like I wasn’t super important in the team. Sure I was a team captain but TC is about a meaningless title as anything, (this year especially since there were 3 others beside myself). If we look at the numbers and the numbers alone, I could forfeit all my races and we would still be significantly ahead of 2nd. So in my mind. What was the point? It’s not that I slacked at all… I still swam well, that was due to experience and training. I’ve been swimming for as long as the school has been built, and I’ve worked my way into a position of respect. I’ve achieved so much and worked so hard to achieve it. And it has been good. I have gained more out of swimming than any activity (or dare I say subject) in my entire life; I’ve learned resilience, commitment, goal setting, and so much more. But at some point I knew I had to make the decision whether to continue this sport or not. What did swimming mean to me? Well originally swimming was a challenge: a way for me to meet and maintain friendships, I’ve made my best friends in swimming, and to have fun while racing. But somewhere along the way I realized that swimming wasn’t challenging me. No. I wasn’t challenging me. I no longer found it as fun and the routine was getting boring despite Smiths best efforts. I wasn’t getting faster because I didn’t want to. I saw no goal, hence I didn’t work towards it. I was, as Smith puts it, “going through the motions”. It took me a while to realize I needed to start something new. I started to branch out, cross country and photography. Service and event planning. For a while I was working on so many projects I barely had any free time, but for once I felt like I was making an impact. No longer did I feel a lack of respect when I wasn’t bothered to try/train. I had purpose again…
Wow this isn’t really a CAS reflection anymore or really a reflection about SEASAC Swimming. But like who is going to read this anyway. Anyway SEASAC swimming. I swam alright. Not the best. Not the worst. Maybe I’ll make the team next year. Maybe not. We’ll see…
Learning outcomes and reflection questions topics included:
- Big picture (Goals, Action and Learning)
- LO 1 AWARENESS (Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth)
- LO 2 CHALLENGE (Undertaken new challenges)/NEW SKILLS (Developing new skills)
- LO3 INITIATIVE (Planning and initiated activities)
- LO 4 COMMITMENT (Showing perseverance, resilience and commitment in activities)
- LO 5 COLLABORATION (Working together to achieve an outcome)
- LO 6 GLOBAL VALUE (Engaging with issues of global importance)
- LO 7 ETHICS (Considering the ethical implications of actions)
