17/2021: In Memory

 When I studied Kindergarten 3, I was trained to swim like a Navy SEAL training. My parents believed that discipline is the most important manner for successful gentlemen in the future. They chose swimming for me because swimming is building discipline and strengthening the body and necessary skills for survival. They hired the coach, the former Thai national swimmer, who has plenty of scars on his muscle, rarely smiles from his face, and fierce teaching style taught me to be a good swimmer and a skillful diver like a submarine. I swam very hard every day for 6 months at many public swimming pools although my village provides a private and safe swimming pool for all villagers. My coach wanted me to try various swimming pools to gain experience in different environments. I had to swim on a rainy day and some on a very cool day. I tried so hard till my arms were shaped like paddles. Once the time came for the race, it led me to my undeletable memory.

    There were 6 representatives from the entire K3 level, 6 classes 50 kids each, nominated to participate in the annual 25 m freestyle swimming contest of my school. Poom, the representative of the K3/5 class, was the scary rival who could swim as fast as I did. Once the referee called all swimmers into the pool, the 3 m depth, 25 m length with 7 lanes standard swimming pool. I was very excited about the first competition in my life. After about 10 minutes of warming up to get familiar with the water, the referee shout, "every swimmer, ready, set GO". Poom was very close to me since the start. I started thinking that“When would he gonna tired and slow down like others?” Then one shot I saw him began to change from 8 strokes to 6 strokes, so he slowed down. I used the same 4 strokes at all times because I was trained to manage my speed to ensure that I could maintain my game as planned. Finally, I saw the Finish line on the other side of the swimming pool edge. I encouraged myself to reach there without fear of loss or win. I tried to straighten my arms as far as I could to reach the edge and touched it. Later I watched the video that Poom’s mother shared with my family, and I saw how close he touched the edge was like 1 second after me.

   I knew that I was the winner, but I waited for the referees to check the score and announced the official result. After waiting for a few minutes, the referees announced my name to stand on the podium as1st, and Poom was the 2nd and my other friend who reached the finish line far behind me and Poom. The school principal awarded the medal to us. After I went back to my classroom, many friends were jealous, so my teacher told me to hide my medal. She might not want students to be heartful. It’s Thai style. I have to keep the medal in my school bag the whole day till back home similar to keep the success in my memory till now.

    The hard practice for several months made me having enough power and skillful techniques to achieve the best awards. This contest also taught me that “if you use your time wisely with hard practice, you will win everything, no matter it’s a risk or not”. After the contest, Poom and I become good friends as a byproduct.