Mademoiselle Butterfly
A competitive swimmer looks back and leaps forward
Mary Naber
July 1, 2001
At age ten, my motivation for joining the local swim team was simple: "There are so many cute boys!" my friend Ellen had reported. I showed up to practice the next day, arriving on deck in my favorite purple bathing suit-complete with a tutu-like skirt-and cannon-balled in. After watching me paddle one length of the pool, the coach agreed that I could join the team.
I loved pretending to be a mermaid as I shimmied along my ocean floor. I delighted in the speed I found in my new rubber flippers. Swimming was fun! And a source of new friends! My association offered a sense of significance and security, as well as savvy-cool sweatshirts. (My Sunday School teacher later informed me that I should really look for two of the three in Jesus.)
Meanwhile, swimming kept me healthy-strengthening my body, improving my lung capacity through games like Sharks and Minnows, and providing an outlet for my enthusiasm. My sport enhanced my social development as well. At the pool I learned a form of sophisticated flirting-slyly swimming below a cute boy and blowing bubbles.
My grandfather Doc drove me to all my swim meets and thus won my love forever. At the pool, he enjoyed serving with other parents as a timer behind one of the lanes, a stopwatch proudly dangling from his neck. After the meet, Doc would drive his car to the pool gate, where I'd hop in and proceed to review the day. Doc never once expressed disappointment, even at my insistence that I had failed to live up to my expectations. He'd merely reply, "You're the light of my life," as I curled up to fall asleep for the remainder of the ride home.
By the time I was 14, I'd advanced through the junior and pre-senior crowds into the senior group. My physical and mental discipline had gradually ...
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