This could be YOUR kid.

I owe a lot to the sport of swimming.

A lot.

It has taught me more about how to live a fulfilling and meaningful life than any class I ever took in school.

It has taught me to set goals.

To push myself.

To keep going when I wanted to quit.

It has given me a group of lifelong friends.

It has ultimately made me a better parent.

I went to Lehigh.

I was on the swim team there all 4 years.

Without that team, college would have sucked.

I was pretty messed up at the time.

That team was my family.

One big, dysfunctional family.

But still.

My family.

All my friends were swimmers.

I lived with swimmers.

They were my support.

I had a pretty mortifying experience my sophomore year in college.

I took this class called Human Sexuality.

There was a big lecture twice a week, plus a small recitation group that met once a week.

On the last day of recitation, the teacher split us into two groups: guys and girls.

We went into separate rooms and wrote down all the questions girls ever wanted to ask guys, and vice versa.

Then we traded questions, came up with answers as a group, and wrote down the responses.

At the end of the class, we got back together as a whole group, and one person from each group shared the answers.

I guess I wasn’t really paying attention when the girls were coming up with the responses to the guys questions.

I wasn’t being very mindful.

So one of the questions from the guys was “What does semen taste like?”

And the girl sharing our answers read, “It tastes like chlorine.”

I guess I chose that moment to pay attention.

And I said,

“It doesn’t taste like chlorine.”

And the room became silent.

Every eye in the room turned to me.

Did I just say that out loud?

I wanted to die.

It took about 5 minutes for that story to get around to everyone on the team, and that afternoon at practice I took a good amount of ribbing.

But my coach put things into perspective for me and made me feel better.

Thank God for Coach.

Eventually the embarrassment faded away, and that became a funny team story.

But this one is my favorite.

We also used to do a Secret Santa.

I had a friend on the team who was very, very sweet.

And one of the guys on the team picked her name to buy a gift for.

You never knew what kind of present anyone was going to get.

Sometimes the gifts were decent.

Other times,

not so much.

So when my cute, innocent friend was slowly opening her gift, her Secret Santa was watching with anticipation.

She carefully took off the wrapping paper,

slowly opened the box,

pushed the tissue paper to the side,

and pulled out,

a

huge

black

dildo.

Upon realizing what it was,

she screamed,

whipped the thing over her shoulder,

and it landed in the pool,

flopped over one of the lane lines.

I don’t think any of us will ever forget Chocolate Thunder.

That was one of the funniest fucking things I have ever seen.

To this day, I don’t think I have laughed as hard as I did that day.

We all did.

And that brings me to my point.

Last summer, Number 3 and 4 joined the swim team.

They loved it.

And they loved their coaches.

And so did I.

And one of their coaches is going to be a senior at UNC Wilmington.

She’s on the swim team.

Well, she was on the swim team.

The school is going to cut out the program.

In her senior year.

She is going to lose her family.

Unless,

maybe,

enough people voice their opinions.

Signing this petition could save the program.

I don’t do this often,

But I am asking you to click on this link.

And sign the petition.

For Kathleen.

She helped my kids.

And I want to help her.

When’s the last time you committed a random act of kindness?

Maybe, today, this could be yours.

Please click here and sign:

SAVE UNC SWIMMING!!!

If you’re really feeling kind,

share this on facebook.

Or like it.

Anything you can do to help.

Don’t let them steal her (chocolate) thunder.

PLEASE TAKE ONE SECOND TO VOTE FOR ME!!!

All you need to do is click on the banner above to register a vote for me! 

You can vote one time every 24 hours from every computer and cell phone! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! I really appreciate your support!

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