I'd just like to say that I am absolutely enamored with diving. Yes, I've always liked it (even though it's caused me a bit of psychological "trauma" in the past). But in the past month I've absolutely fallen in love with it. I get really excited on days we practice. The best part of my weekends is not that there's no school (although I do love that aspect!), but that I get to practice 2 and sometimes 3 days in a row. Of course, a large chunk of it is that I adore my divings buddies. I'm going out for pizza tonight with "my divers" (the 3 other Jordan divers) and I'm beyond excited. They're so much fun. And even though we're from a bunch of different schools and conferences, there's really not a whole lot of competition. Maybe it'll heat up in a week or two, as regionals and states approach, but I kinda doubt it (although, I will be honest and say that I'm only slightly disappointed that one of the divers in my conference/region hasn't yet and may not qualify for regionals).
The past week especially has been crazy as far as diving. I officially qualified for regionals last Friday after FINALLY nailing my gainer dive and gainer flip. I'd only worked for a season and a half on getting those! I then found out that I have a decent chance at making states, since the top 8 regional finishers go. Currently, I only know of 5 other divers in my region who have qualified (that's not to say there won't be any more, but there's very few other places in the state with facilities). Then, I got an email and a phone call from Rhodes' head swimming and diving coach/athletics director. Basically, they want me to dive for them. If I go to Rhodes, I'm on the team (if I so choose). Even though I don't have a 3 meter list yet. This just blows me away. I never in a million years would have imagined that I'll be playing a varsity NCAA sport! Granted, it's division 3 (thank goodness, since I opted not to go through NCAA clearing house!), but still! For some reason, I haven't really told too many people about it. I didn't tell my coach until last night, and even then, I didn't tell my head coach. Just the assistant coach (who I used to dive with).
So anyway, that's what's been going on. And since regionals are less than 3 weeks away, I'll be pretty busy concentrating on that. I want so badly to make states. But we'll see.
- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 4:21 PM