When I was just a little girl, my dad always told me, “Strive to be the best you can be.” I never understood the importance of this until I was a little bit older. The Anderson family motto is, “Being normal is okay, but it is not okay when you can be better than normal. Everyone is normal, what's great about that?” It is safe to say we all strive to be great at whatever it is we do. It doesn't even have to be a sport. My mom, for example, is the best teacher out there. Her students love her because she teaches them well whilst still being fun-loving and caring. My brothers are great at what they do. For being nine and twelve, they are amazing at basketball. Chris, my older younger brother, averages up to 30 points a game. My dad is a fantastic basketball coach, all his clients get better within a matter of weeks. Whether it is playing basketball or cup stacking, if we are going to do it, we make sure to be the best we can be at it. When I was around 4 years old, I started swimming. I always had a love for the water, even as a baby. My dad signed me up for the YMCA swim team around age six, and I also swam another swim team when we moved to Germany. After we moved back to Atlanta, I signed up for the YMCA swim team again, amongst other teams I was a part of in the meantime. Naturally, I was good at swimming, so it was fun for me. I made a couple of good friends while swimming too. My love for athletics started during that time in my life. The reason I find sports so intriguing is because athleticism is truly something special. I realized at a very young age that playing sports was something that brought profound excitement and thrilling aspects to my being, while still teaching me valuable skills for life, like how I need to work hard and put in personal effort if I want to succeed. Still, I did not know if I wanted to make it my passion though. Like I said, I was just naturally good at the sport, I did not know if I wanted to be good enough to become a professional and put in actual hard work. My dad was the one who took me to my swimming practices and meets, most of which I had been winning, typically in backstroke. My most competitive meets were with the team that I had been swimming with for four years, the Dorsals. We had our championship meet at the Marist competition pool. Before my event, my dad told me to break the backstroke record. He said he believed in me and that I could do it. The record holder swam one lap of backstroke in 21.6 seconds, and the record hadn't been broken in over 12 years. There was no way I could beat that, I had never swam that time before. It was finally my event and my heart was pounding. I did not think I could beat that record. I was perfectly capable of breaking it, I just had to trust my training at that point. My dad’s words were flooding my head. Could I really do it? I was never nervous before an event or race. I always knew I could win, but it never once crossed my mind to try and beat a record. That was a big mentality flaw I had as a child: I did not always believe in myself, even when I should have. A lot of times I did not put in hard work, but my talent would override the laziness. However, if I had put in that hard work, I could have been so much better. That was something this experience taught me. However, I felt obligated to break the record, and it made me anxious. Thoughts started to run wild through my head. “What if I disappointed my dad? What if I did not live up to the family motto?” I came back to reality looking down at the water below me. Suddenly I was in the water and the next thing I heard was, “Swimmer take your mark...BEEP!” I sprung backwards into the water. I was booking it! I swam the fastest I could and slammed my hands into the wall to finish. I looked up at the scoreboard to see my rank. Great, first place. Then, I noticed my time: 19.04. I had beaten the record! I was overjoyed and at a loss for words. I could not believe I broke the record in a championship meet. I did not know what to do with myself, I was so excited. I ran over to my dad to see what he would say and all he said was, “See. I told you.” Clearly, he was just as happy as I was. A couple months later, my name was displayed on the wall of “Championship Records” at my swim club. This sparked a change in personal growth for me in many ways. First, it taught me that, even though I did not believe in myself, I was still able to achieve a goal that I thought was impossible. I never thought it was important to work hard because my talent was always brought me up a step above everyone else. Soon after I broke the record, I realized that it was only a record at my local swim club. Once I got to the big league swim competitions, my puny record suddenly meant nothing. I could not seem to keep up. It was because my work levels were low, and I was just running off talent. Once I understood that logic, it inspired me to start working hard. I did not believe it at first, but hard work does pay off. Maybe not immediately, but at the end of the day it is worth it. Putting in hard work gets me so much further than talent ever could. At the time, I felt like I had proved to my dad that I am capable of living up to this family value that we have. That was also something I learned about myself. I always want to make my dad proud because he means the world to me. He has helped me so much through life and swimming made me realize that. Even though I don't swim anymore, it taught me to have a certain mindset that not only helps me in sports, but in real life too. I now translate those morals into any sport I play, along with everyday life. I run track now, which is definitely a mentality sport. What I learned through swimming has helped me tremendously with times when I have to push myself while running. I surely would have quit by now because of the difficulty, but instead I choose to go even harder. My body has allowed me to be naturally good at sports and specifically track. Even though I already feel I am proficient, I can never be the best without putting in hard work. Why? Because I am not the only talented person on this earth. How could I be better than someone just as talented as me, but I do not put in the same hard work (or more, even) as them? They would now automatically be better than me. It is not always about my talent, that is just something that gives me an upper hand. If I don't have the right mentality, what can I amount to anyway? Talent is not what is going to get me there, it's my mindset and hard work.