By Lauren Kaufman
Contributor
The early morning fog covered the pool at the Hillman Aquatics Center on Jan. 25.
Family, friends and fellow students began filing in and filling the stands to watch the seniors on the CSU Bakersfield swim team swim one last time in its home pool as it takes on University of California, Santa Cruz.
I stand next to my six fellow seniors as our coach addresses the team. I see the shine in their eyes as we all realize we are about to do our last team cheer on this pool deck.
It’s like the world is moving in slow motion as we clap and run up onto the grassy hill in front of the packed stands.
Tears fill my eyes as my teammate, friend and fellow senior Dennis Cassidy yells “Whose house is this?” We all cheer back “Our house!”
This pool, this deck and this team–they make up my house and my family.
And today marks the last time I will race here, and the last time I will feel this thrill. I choke back tears and we finish our cheer.
The rest of the team forms two lines and holds their hands above their heads making a tunnel for us seniors to run through.
We stand off to the side; one by one the announcer reads our name and a short bio about each of us.
Once he is done we run through our teammates makeshift tunnel and stand on blocks in front of the crowd. I am the last to be called. This is something I have watched for three years, but I never thought about the moment it would actually happen to me.
“It was a meet that took me down memory lane,” Justin Young, another senior on the team says. “I remembered every single home meet I’ve had [and] all the memories on deck I’ve shared with amazing teammates and coaches.”
The meet carried on like the rest until the final relay.
As I stood behind the blocks all I could think was, “this is it. This is my last race in this pool.”
The pool that forever marked my skin with the smell of chlorine, the pool that has been there every time I’ve had a bad day and just needed to put my goggles on and swim it out.
The pool that taught me work ethic, the pool that gave me a second chance after I wanted to give up on my dreams and the pool that has consumed my life for the last three years.
My team cheers as I get on the block to swim the 50 freestyle: “Last one, fast one!” My breathing starts to get heavy. “Lets go Lauren! This is it,” my teammates cheered.
The lump in my throat builds. “Last one Lo!” I dive in.
Twenty-four seconds later I touch the wall in first place and it’s done.
I have completed my final race in the pool I call home.
It’s crazy how fast it all comes to an end. Dennis summed up the day perfectly, “It was a culminating experience that was too surreal to take in. “It finally hit me that my four years were coming to an end and I had to look onto the future. I loved every second of that meet and it’s something I’ll never forget.”
It was a day that I remembered to swim for the young girl that fell in love with the sport 18 years ago, for one last time.