District Swim Meet

This past Friday and Saturday your very own Belton High School Swim Team traveled down to College Station to participate in the District swim meet.  Friday was prelims where everybody competed in two individual events trying to be one of the eight lucky people to advance to finals the next day.  We swam well as a group, with a bunch of people making it to the Saturday Finals and many more in the top ten, so hopefully they will make it in the top eight next year.  (as for me i got the first place seed in both events). So after some pizza because we got done late (thanks dumb Aggie's) a nice rest in anticipation for the big showdown Saturday night. 
    Never has a morning felt so long in my life.  All the pressure and anticipation of the upcoming races kept growing on me, almost to the point i was planning to explode. The electricity in the building as the first relays hit the water was astounding, and our girls and boys relays represented well with a second place showing only adding to our teams excitement.  then my dreaded time came, the 200 free,my nerves were on edge making my mind think anything but happy thoughts.  Good thing all these nerves go away when the water rushes over you and all of a sudden you realize there is a job to do. A short (haha i wish) minute and 46 seconds later, i finally hit the wall first followed by my good buddy and team mate Benjamin York. Next for me came the 100 free which after the 200 was not as nerve racking but ended with the same result (thankfully). Our 200 free relay went well, getting second by only a few inches... :( but we got our revenge in the last event, the 400 free relay, when I followed by Benjamin York, Austin Couillard, and Mitch Anderson got first place by a landslide win of 9 seconds, shattering our old school record by over three seconds.

Over all both the Girls and Boys teams got second behind our A&M consolidated rivals.  During the meet, 7 school records were set, 3 on the girls side and 4 on the boys... that is what i did with my weekend and will be doing the same in two weeks at regional meet in Mansfield.  Again even if you don't care about swimming, it would be cool for some "good luck's" for support. and ill let y'all know how Region goes.

ok back on track.... well i hope

nice long relaxing mondays off are absoultly wonderful! To bad that it is championship swimming time again and so rather than spending some nice time outside, I got to spend three hours in cold wet water and then go home and scramble to try and get ahead on any possible homework so when I get home from our meets, completly mentally and physically exhaused, I may be able to retain some of my sanity by not being absolutely overwhelmed with homework. In some of the little down time between working on various things on monday, i could not help but thinking how great it is going to feel when the pressure of swimming in my lasat high school meet is over and we get past the Ap test and have all sorts of time to be bored and hang out with friends all the while gearing up for hopefully a wonderful, memorie filled summer. i just hope the summer goes by much much much slower thqn the school year because boy has it flown by.

P.S. if you see a swimmer in the next couple of weeks, it would be cool if you said good luck to them, I know nobody cares about swimming but it would be cool if some people pretended for like a couple of seconds.. 

uhhh a little late...

East of Eden, my first blog of what I thought the book would be like could not have been more wrong compared to what the story has turned out to be. The 17 chapters after the first one have been an absoulute joy to read. the book is continually moving and develops so many characters divuldging so much information through their descriptions and actions that I have a hard time putting the book down.  I cant wait to see what becomes of Adam after his "Glory" shoots and leaves him to take care of twin boys. Also i am dissapointed that John Steinbeck could write such a good, interesting book as this one and then end up writing something like "the Pearl" i know it has literary merit and all that what not, but he does not create the same personability in the text of the Pearl as he does in East of Eden. now ill leave the blog hanging on that rant. you comments agreeing or disagreeing with that would be most intersting.  

East of Eden

So we have embarked on another John Steinbeck journey.....oh boy I can not wait to see what this novel will entail after the amazing adventure of the characters in The Pearl. Ok all kidding aside the first chapter was full of amazing detail that really helped me envision the Salinas River Valley.  However this pretty picture comes at a price, well for me at least. Many times while reading, I become encumbered by massive amounts of detail and so end up missing the broader messages and themes present throughout a novel. With out a solid understanding of the authors purpose I feel I miss some of the book and don't end up with the appreciation or enjoy usually gained from reading. After reading this first chapter of East of Eden , I feel that this may again become the case which makes me daunted by the book, and so less enthusiastic about reading. But that was just the first chapter and so I hope it becomes more manageable for me and once I'm done, I will have a good grasp of Steinbeck motive for the novel.