Riley

At the lovely Recreation Center where i work, there's an elementary swim team that practices five days a week in the evening in our lap pool. I love watching these kids, especially the little 5 and 6 year olds who can barely swim in the first place attempting to do the butterfly.
I normally watch for the little hilarious things the coaches miss such as, the kids secretly hitting eachother with kickboards or watching their little egos run wild as they waste half their energy just to pass eachother in their lane. But a couple weeks ago i witnessed something that stuck with me long after i had stepped down in my rotation.
On the pool deck next to the lap pool was the tiniest and cutest little nom i had ever seen in my life. She just sat there, folding a pile of swim caps, organizing her swim bag while watching the other kids swim. She would occasionally start to walk towards her coach, but then second guess herself and go back to organizing her swim bag. Eventually she got the nerve to finally walk up to her coach and say, "i want to swim now." I heard the coach talk to her and learned the girl's name to be Riley. The coach watched sternly as Riley hopped into the water and began to swim.
Riley struggled to swim five feet at a time, grasping at the wall constantly as her coach encouraged her. Her peers passed her one after the other, Riley stopping to stare at them as they all passed her by; but she kept swimming.
For the last fifteen minutes of practice Riley swam maybe 4 lengths of the pool. At the end of practice, she climbed out of the pool, neatly folded her swim cap and placed it in her completely organized bag and without a word went into the ladies locker room.
I know Riley doesn't know how inspiring she was to me that day, so all i can do is hope she continues with the determination i know i didn't have at that age. It brought a tear to my eye watching this little girl literally swim her heart out even though it seemed unbearable. As Jack's Mannequin once said, "You've gotta swim, don't let yourself sink, just find the horizon, i promise it's not as far as you think."
I haven't seen Riley at practice anymore, but she's been on my mind constantly ever since.