Swimming: it’s an activity that encompasses so many different aspects from extreme competition and fierceness, to calm and serene as one effortlessly moves through the water. Just as one could enter a race and lose every ounce of breath left in their body, they could also spend time floating freely in the water forgetting that gravity even exists at that moment. Swimming has many different facets and emotions that seem to have transferred into the life of one of its biggest fans: Jen Harvill.
Jen started swimming at the young age of five, “My mom put me and my brothers in a summer swim league after we had swimming lessons, and from there I stuck up with it.” She continued to swim with various leagues until the age of 17, and went beyond her brothers who quit swimming at earlier ages.
Despite her brothers leaving the sport earlier than her, the family still always considered themselves a “swimming family.” Jen, herself participated in a summer swim league as well as a year round swim league from the age of 5 until 17, “I did a year round swim team first for the Y and then for UMBC.” Her mother also loved the fact that all of her children, especially Jen, stuck to a sport for such a long period of time, truly making them into a swimming family, “I was happy that she was into something that she could be good at. None of my children wanted to get into any sport but swimming.”
But just as swimming has many phases and fluidity to it, so did Jen’s life as she left home to start college. Having lived the majority of her life in Ellicott City, MD she decided to follow in her older brother’s footsteps and enroll at Virginia Tech. Her mother found it especially hard as Jen left, despite having older brothers who had already left for college, “She is the baby of the family and my only daughter…she made life a little more bearable for me when she was at home and I miss doing things with her and just talking.” Despite missing her terribly, her mother was just happy that Jen was at a school that she felt comfortable at.
While the initial thrill of starting college was exciting for Jen, she still had many issues to deal with her first semester at school, just like any college freshman. The workload changed for her drastically as she transitioned from a high school senior to a college freshman, “I’m still stuck in procrastinating mode, which worked fine in high school but my brain still hasn’t grasped the whole aspect of ‘studying ahead of time.’” And like many students, she came to college with certain expectations, all of which weren’t met. Despite this she was able to find more pros than cons to being a college freshman, “At the beginning I almost felt disillusioned with the whole thing, I felt like I expected more out of it, but its gotten better.”
One of the harder things that she has had to deal with as she entered a new phase of her life was to enter into a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend who decided to enroll in Towson University. Long-distance may seem daunting to many, but Jen has been able to succeed in maintaining contact with her boyfriend all the while enjoying her college experience. Having her car as a freshman has helped her tremendously in being able to visit him whenever necessary. Her boyfriend, though, does find time to visit her in Blacksburg and help create new memories at Virginia Tech. As we talked about her boyfriend, Jen started laughing hysterically as she was reminded of a funny and embarrassing event that had occurred while he was visiting, “I was walking down the steps from the [dining hall] after getting ice cream, and it had rained [which caused me to slip]. Both of my feet flew in the air, as I fell on my butt on the steps and my ice cream cone flew into my boyfriends lap. Luckily it was later at night so there weren’t too many people there to point and laugh, so all I could do was grab the rest of the ice cream from his lap and yell 5 second rule.”
Despite being extremely content with her college experience thus far, Jen still misses one of the biggest parts of her life before college: swimming. There is a look of longing in Jen’s eyes as we talk about her not being able to swim in college at this moment, “Not swimming in college kind of sucks. I miss being on a team and being able to swim. Of course I don’t miss the 5:00am practices, but I just miss the sense of freedom I would get when I was underwater.” Because she misses swimming more than she expected to, Jen eagerly talks about her plans to join an intramural swim team next semester, just to be able to get her feet wet again. College has not replaced her love of swimming competitively with a team.
Though she is not part of an official swim team, Jen is able to get a little bit of her “swim fix” by working as a lifeguard. This allows her time by the water despite not having the feeling of team bonding that she would get from being part of a swim team.
Her mother, though, supports Jen through whatever she may decide to pursue with swimming, “Now that she is older, she can do whatever [she wants] with swimming, I hope she stays with life guarding for as long as she can since it is close to swimming.”
While letting go of swimming may have felt like a great loss in her life this semester, Jen was able to find joy from being a college freshman. She was able to overcome starting at a new school, and to enjoy herself despite missing home and her boyfriend. Her mother best describes her daughter, in parting and sad words, about how these great changes in her daughter’s life have affected her, “I miss the companionship, the conversations, and [dislike] the feeling of seeing my daughter gone and that I won't have my little girl again.” Just like the water that Jen loves swimming effortlessly in, her life is just as fluid and constantly changing towards the new phases in her life.
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