The following is a little reflection I plan on sharing with my team tonight at our Inspiration Dinner. If you haven't had a chance to donate, there are only a few more days! We will be swimming across the Hudson on Sunday 9/15 to raise money and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
So this is it, our last night together as a team before we
swim across the Hudson. Wow, we’re going
to swim across the Hudson. On Sunday, we
will be able to stand on the sand of Kingsland Point Park, point to Nyack and
declare, “look how far we’ve come,” but those three miles are the very end of a
much longer journey.
We have all come so far. Whether you began training for the
swim three months ago or three years ago, this has been a journey of growth,
friendship, frustration and determination and I am so lucky to have been with
you through all of it. I’m sure we’ve
all had days when it seemed like too much; days when reports of bacteria or the
grossed out look on a co-worker’s face made you question spending your weekends
in the Hudson, days when asking for money, AGAIN, seemed like it would alienate
everyone you knew, days when you pushed and pushed and the Hudson pushed back
and left you feeling like a rubber ducky in her mighty waters. But here you are, less than three days away
from being able to say “Swim Nyack to Sleepy Hollow? Yeah, I did that. No
biggie.”
When I started this journey, at our very first practice we
went around and shared why we had signed up for the event. I was as honest as I
could be at the time. My body had been the object of ridicule and disdain for
most of my life, but it had also survived a car accident, and so instead of
letting my body be the reason I held myself back, I wanted to prove that my
body was a strong machine capable of amazing feats. On the day of the swim, a few months later, I
was terrified of being in a swimsuit around “all these athletes.” I felt like a fraud, until finally someone
said, “Umm, you’re an athlete. You’re on the team, aren’t you?” Duh. Yet, I
still feel like I have unfinished business.
On Sunday, FINALLY, I hope to prove it.
I am so proud to know each and every one of you and I am so
grateful that you are my teammates. I
look around this room and am inspired by all your hard work, athleticism,
generosity and dedication.
I am also inspired by the people for whom we swim. Over the past three summers I have met so
many people whose lives have been touched, smacked and ravished by blood
cancers. Husbands and wives, children, nieces and nephews, sisters and
brothers, friends. We swim for them. On the days when the river is being a
bitch, and we all know there are definitely those days, I think of all those
people and their families and I keep kicking, because with every stroke and
kick, we get closer to our ultimate goal of kicking cancer square in the
backside.
Good luck, everybody. I love you all and I know you will
make it across, come hell or high water!
