JUST KEEP SWIMMING
My 14-year journey in the sport I love the most
“Take your mark…GO!”
A phrase that rang through my water-clogged ears during early morning swim practices for 14 years. A sport I truly loved and stuck with the longest, swimming shaped an important part of who I am. My journey began at the Spears YMCA in Greensboro. I was two or three years old, and I was getting special swim lessons with my mom and my Nana. I remember feeling like a mermaid princess splashing around and flipping my imaginary tail. When my parents saw that I took an interest in swimming, they signed me up for real swim lessons during the summer at Friendly Park Pool.
To this day, I still think about the excitement of those summer league meets at Friendly Pool, home of the Friendly Frogs—the forts that kids would build out of chairs and wet towels set up along the pool deck, the parents and timers wearing their matching Friendly Frog t-shirts, the smell of sunscreen and chlorine mingling in the warm air, the thrill of hearing my name being announced while underwater during the first seconds of my events, and of course the iconic hot pink and neon green swim caps. Friendly wasn’t just a pool, it was a family. It was where I made some of my closest friends, and where I learned the importance of teamwork and cheering on others, even if it meant losing my voice by the end of the day.
Most of my summers were spent at Friendly. Hanging out with friends, early morning and evening swim practices every day, float night Fridays, synchronized swimming during Labor Day weekend, the infamous Fourth of July celebrations, and pancake breakfasts after our Swim for Cancer morning practice. In fact, my first ever job was being a lifeguard at Friendly. That pool had me wrapped around their fingers.
While the summers were filled with fun and excitement, year-round swimming took on a different meaning for me when I started swimming during the school year. From elementary school to middle school, I swam with Star Aquatics with a few of my friends from Friendly Pool. My friend Kate was my best swimming buddy growing up. She was also my neighbor, which made carpooling and after-practice hangouts even more memorable.
When I got to high school and started swimming on the varsity team, the stakes were higher, and the practices felt like a chore—especially those 5 a.m. sessions when the last thing I wanted was to plunge into freezing water. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about high school swim as I was about summer league swim. But swimming in high school taught me discipline. It wasn’t just about the times on the clock or the medals on the podium; it was about the mental toughness to push through, even when I felt like giving up. Every lap, every practice, every race taught me more about resilience and focus than I ever thought possible.
I remember one of the toughest moments during my swimming career was when I was unexpectedly put in the 500 free event during my first high school swim meet as a freshman. For all my non-swimmers reading this, the 500 freestyle is an event that consists of 20 continuous laps and 19 flip turns. It's considered a distance race because it's long, but it's also challenging because it's not so long that you can hold back. I knew I was a sprinting swimmer because I was good at going fast during shorter distance events like the 50 free or 100 free. But the 500 free was my absolute hell on earth. To put it into perspective, a normal time to swim 500 freestyle is under 5 minutes. To swim a 500 freestyle in under 5 minutes, you can try swimming each 50-yard interval in under 30 seconds. I came in dead last, finishing with a 10-minute time. I can’t put into words how defeated I was; I was basically drowning and swimming at the same time. It was so bad. However, a lesson learned: never put Catharine in the 500 free…EVER!
One of the happiest memories during my swimming career was always City Meet during summer swim. City Meet is like the Olympics but just for summer swim clubs in Greensboro and surrounding towns. It was such a blast. It lasted over the span of three days and was held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, where they often have the Olympic swimming trials. Every team had its own area in the Greensboro Coliseum next door, where kids would run around and mingle with their friends from other swim teams and schools. All of the areas had themes and decorations, and ours was ALWAYS frog-themed with our bright pink and green colors.
The last day of City Meet was always the best day because it was the final events day where the best of the best competed against each other; as well as my personal favorite, parade day. Before the start of the final day of events, all of the teams would dress up and parade from the coliseum into the GAC and fill up the entire pool deck. During this time, teams were honored for their fundraising efforts for Swim for Cancer, given good sportsmanship awards, and many others.
The most memorable parade for me was in 2018 when our entire team surprised our head coach, Erin Harris, who has been a fierce fighter against breast cancer. There are not enough words in the English dictionary to describe how amazing and strong Coach Erin is. I have known her for all my years spent at Friendly, and I think about her every day. She taught me how to dive, she taught me how to flip turn, and she taught me how to do many fun synchronized swimming tricks. She is one of the biggest role models that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. Unfortunately, during the 2018 summer, she had a relapse in her cancer battle. So to surprise her, our pool board gave everyone a bright pink shirt with a frog on the back that said “Harris Strong.” She was very surprised when we paraded onto the pool deck seeing us all in pink; her joy was contagious :) We went on to win first place that year. My favorite summer swim season by far.
After the parade, we would go back to our areas, hit the pool deck, and cheer as loud as we could for our finalists in their events. The relay events at the very end were always the most hype and intense. People jumping, coaches yelling and clapping, kids screaming, it was absolute mayhem, but in the best way. I was very lucky to have been a part of many City Meet Championship seasons for Friendly. It was always a great day to be a Friendly Frog.
The sense of belonging, the discipline, and the pure joy of racing never left me. Even though I’m no longer competing, swimming will always be a part of who I am. It’s not just the ribbons or the records that stick with me, but the lessons I learned—about perseverance, teamwork, and the quiet satisfaction of giving my all, whether I won or lost. As I look back on those 14 years, I’m grateful for every moment—both the victories and the challenges. It was a long journey, but I wouldn’t trade a single lap of it.
