Go Team!

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!