2019 Life Logs, Day 221: Falmouth Swim Meet
Date: Friday, August 9, 2019
Weather: Another Perfect Summer Day; High 89, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
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This afternoon, children who took swim lessons at one of Falmouth’s beaches this summer met at Massachusetts Maritime Academy for a swim meet. The students from each of the beaches competed in the Olympic-sized pool and Ollie was one of the students. Jonah and Sam could not attend due to their involvement in Scout and soccer camp this week, but Ollie proudly carried the Goldstone torch. And I was so very proud of him. When he first learned about the meet during swim lessons a couple of weeks ago, he was adamant that he would not compete. He has only been in a swimming pool a very few times in his life as we have no public pools here on the Cape and has never been in an Olympic-sized pool. But his swim instructor, Jacqueline, kept encouraging him and promised that she would be right there with him, so he finally decided this was something he really wanted to do. When we arrived and he saw the pool and all of the kids, I think he was terrified. There were no other kids from Menauhant in his age group, so he had to go it alone which made me as anxious as Ollie. But his older Menauhant friends cheered him on and when he completed his three competitions, he announced that this was one of the greatest things he has ever done. “It was awesome.” He is a tough little guy and declared after the meet that he will definitely compete next year. I give a lot of the credit to his instructor, Jacqueline. She obviously loves children and knew just the right way to encourage each of them. Thank you, Jacqueline!
