A Reflection

As I have mentioned before, this year was my last season of competitive swimming. We just had the end-of-the-year banquet a few days ago, and, since it was my last one, I couldn't help but think about the past 11 years, and what swimming has meant to me during them.

I started when I was 11, I think. I don't remember why, exactly, though the Princeton Aquatic Club was across the street from the Queen City Racket Club where my mom played tennis. I'd been taking swim lessons since I was small (my first flipturn is on tape somewhere), but had never swum competitively before. I still remember my first day of practice- I had to ask how many laps a 100 was! I was so inexperienced, and I was terrified. But, miraculously, I got better. And better. I advanced through the levels quickly, going from bronze to gold in 2 years or so. I loved every single second of it. Swimming became the center of my life. I would come home from school, have a snack, then eagerly sit around, waiting for my mom to be ready to take me to practice. I was always early, and usually the first one in the water. I became close the my teammates, who were from all different schools, and my coaches. I loved those men, and I still believe that they had the some of the greatest impact on my during those years. Wolf (short for Wolfenberg) and Dan- those two men ruled my life. To quote my beloved professor Kirk, when they said "Jump," I said, "How high and into which tree?" They nurtured my swimming and gave me my love for the sport. I got fast- my freshman year of high school, I went a 1:04 in my 100 backstroke; my sophomore year, I went a 1:00.

Then the unthinkable happened. Wolf got married and quit coaching, leaving Dan in charge. I was devastated. Wolf had practically taught me how to swim-it was because of him that I loved swimming so much! How could he just leave me like that?! I definitely saw this as the deepest form of betrayal, especially since I had such high hopes for my junior year. I thought that I couldn't break a minute in my 100 back if he weren't there holding the watch. Somehow, however, I got through the season and looked forward to the Sectional meet. But then I got sick, and went slow, and cursed life but knew I still had one more year.

It was the summer between junior and senior year that Dan got married and left. This was a major blow, since an entirely new coach would be coming in. I was terrified- how would someone who didn't know me at all help me achieve my goals? How could I do anything without Wolf or Dan?? I think that this attitude made me hate Mike from the very beginning, and I am sorry for that now since I feel like we could've come to an understanding if I had been more open. Alas, hindsight is always 20/20. However, hate him I did, and with a fierce intensity that stemmed mostly from my fear of change- change of coaches along with the imminent change of schools that the end of the year would bring. We didn't get along, though I might have still gotten faster if I hadn't fallen down the stairs while babysitting. I sprained my ankle in the worst way, right before high school season officially started. I was out for a month, and even after I was back in the water, my ankle continued to bother me. I was crushed, and, along with several other things, ended up having a fairly terrible senior year, as well as senior season.

I seriously questioned whether I would continue in college. I didn't know if I wanted to swim anymore, because I felt that Mike had made me hate it, along with what I perceived as my failure during senior year. However, Mark Fino, then the assistant coach, reminded me so much of Wolf that I felt compelled to give it a try. I'm forever thankful that I did because I loved every second of my college career. It definitely had its downs, but I feel like I matured so much because of swimming. I had to come to terms with the fact that I would never be as fast as I was my sophomore year in high school, which was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But I realized that just because I would never break a minute, I could still work hard and have the best fun ever. I've been able to see this team grow from about 10 to 20 girls, and 5 to 15 boys. The girls have gone from never winning a meet to having a winning season. Both sides now beat other teams at the Conference meet. I remember when the girls beat Hiram my sophomore year-the first time we'd beaten someone at Conference. We came in second to last but I don't think anyone cheered as loudly as we did when they announced our name and score. I've made friends whom I know will last me a lifetime, and I am so so grateful for that. And even though it was hard, grueling, painful, and sometimes disappointing, I love swimming with all my heart and I will miss every part of it deeply. As Bryne said to me once, "You know that we don't do this for the numbers on the board. If we did, we would have quit a long time ago." And it's true, we did it because we loved it.

Translation

Last week, I (finally) participated in the annual Translation Symposium that is organized by the Comparative Literature Department. I've always wanted to do this, but always managed to hear about it after the submission deadline. Well, this year I had my act together, submitted a translation, and was picked! I translated a speech of Dido's from book four of the Aeneid. The specific lines are 296-332 if you want to look up the lines, but here is my translation:

But the queen knew something was wrong- who could fool a woman in love? She seemed to know everything, jumping at shadows. Nothing was safe. She heard a terrible rumor that the fleet was being armed and prepared for voyage, which infuriated her. With a broken spirit, and burning with rage, she tore through the whole city, like crazy Bacchants shaking the sacred rattle during the triennial orgies after they have heard the ritual cry, “Bacchus!.” In the night, the mountain Cithaeron lures them away. At last, she confronts Aeneas:

“Traitor! How did you expect to hide such a horrible crime and leave without telling me? Will nothing keep you here? Not our love nor our marriage nor even me? I will die! Why would you try to sail during the stormy winter winds anyway? I mean, if you weren’t trying to find a new home, and if Troy hadn’t been destroyed, would you even be here? Are you running away from me? I am nothing without you! What about these tears? Your left hand? Or our marriage and the ceremonies we just started? Do I deserve nothing good from you? Was nothing of mine sweet to you? I beg you to pity a falling house! Please, I pray, give up this mindset. Don’t you know that because of you all of Africa hates me, and my own people are my enemies? I destroyed my honor for you and my good reputation which would have made me immortal. Why, guest- since that is all you are now- would you want to leave me? I should kill myself now! Or should I just sit around and wait for my brother, Pygmalion, to destroy my city, or for Iarbas to capture and rape me? If only I could have had your child before you abandon me, if only a baby Aeneas would play with me and remind me of you, I would not feel so completely deserted.”

She spoke, and that one could not look at her. He would obey the command of Jove and, though he struggled, pushed his love for her deep into his heart.

I tried to make this a more modern translation, since Dido is just going through something every girl goes through at least once in her life- a terrible break up. Ok, hers is so bad she kills herself, but I think most women can relate to her on some level. I know I can. So I tried to bring that sense of loss, anger and frustration out here while keeping it as modern-sounding as the Latin would allow me.

The Symposium itself was pretty cool. There were about 20 people total reading in a variety of languages and its really amazing what some people came up with. As someone who translates every single day for class, and who mostly translates as literally as possible, it was really fun to sit there and listen to other people's interpretations of their text. All in all, a good experience. :-)

Drag Ball

This past weekend was Oberlin's annual Drag Ball, an event that, in my four years here, I had never been to. Naturally, with it being my last year and all that, I decided that I had to go, and since Chris and I had been talking about maybe going as Antony and Cleopatra for years, I had no problem figuring out who I was going to dress up as. As you may guess, Drag Ball is basically a school sponsored party where everyone dressed up in drag, gets drunk, and parties till the wee hours of the morning. I only actually participated in two of these things, since I got a bit bored around 12:30am, but I'll start the story from the beginning.

Once Chris and I confirmed our Classical theme, the next problem was figuring out how to get costumes. I am very low on funds right now, so I wanted something easy and cheap, but also really wanted to wear armor of some sort- I thought that a toga would make people think of Caesar, though I'm sure the majority of people there wouldn't know who one of the other was. In the end, due to financial limitations and time constraints, I ended up wearing a bed sheet wrapped around me in some sort of fashion, and it didn't look half bad. I even had a crown of "laurel" leaves, which was really a fake vine of ivy wrapped around a plastic headband. All in all, I looked somewhat like a real Roman, though togas are very andgrogenous (s/p?), but for me, that was besides the point. Chris looked stunning in a black dress from Greece that he borrowed from Shoshana, complete with a stuffed bra borrowed from me. He even had the Egyptian eyes going, and some nice classical looking jewelry, which really completed the look.

Of course, as we were getting ready, so were numerous other people who just popped into the house. We were all listening to music, drinking, and oooh-ing and aaah-ing over each others' outfits. Everyone looked great- Sarah looked almost exactly like Mark, if only a few inches shorter, and Erin was a spitting image of her younger brother, only with an afro. Mark went as "Rainbow Brite," which was an interesting combonation of mini-skirt, tube top, and 10-inch-high wig, all in very bright colors and too much make up.

Around 10:30, we decided to head over to Wilder, the student union, to commence partying. All of Wilder had been turned into a Drag Wonderland- there were decorations, lights, and music everywhere. It was very impressive. In Wilder Main, there was a hige catwalk with stairs coming down to it from the balcony, and this is where the performances took place. That's right, Drag Ball isn't just a huge party; the school hires professional Drag Kings and Queens to host the night and give a few performances. I only saw a few of these, and I have to admit that watching someone whose gender I was unsure of strip down to panties and pasties was not really my cup of tea. The one performance I thoroughly did enjoy, however, was not a professional's at all. It was Scott McInerney doing Beyonce's dance to Single Ladies, which he had been doing in our living room at parties all year long. It was definitely something to see him up there dancing away in a wig and leotard.

After Scott's dance, I'd decided that I'd had enough of drag and headed home. I'm glad I went, but I don't feel like I truly missed anything for the past three years. I think I'd rather just party at my house with people I know, instead of being packed into the student union with unfamilar faces, made more unfamiliar by the genderfuck. But I guess you can say that it was a good experience.

An Introduction

For some reason, I had the urge to create another one of these, using Blogspot now that LiveJournal seems somewhat out of style. I guess the reason I want to do this is that I want to improve my writing, and the only way to do that is to, well, write. Another reason is to help those I will leave behind at Oberlin keep up to date on my activities, if they so desire.
For those of you who don't know me, I am currently a senior Classics major at Oberlin College, soon to be released into the wide world. I used to be a competitive swimmer, but with the end of the '08-'09 season came the end of my competitive swimming career. It was very hard for me to greet the end of the season this year, since swimming has meant more to me than I ever could have imagined when I first walked into the pool at Princeton High School twelve years ago. Now that swimming is over, I have a bit more time on my hands to do things like worry about school, my future, my friends, my income, etc, etc, etc...But in what spare time I do have, I love to swing dance, which explains the title of my humble blog. I started dancing three years ago as an eager but timid freshman, taking full advantage of Oberlin's fairly unique Exco program. I was hooked after the first class, and have been dancing as much as possible ever since. I even teach the beginning Exco class now, which is amazing and so much fun.
As a senior, one must assume that I've either been slacking off completely or freaking out completely. I'd have to say it has been more freaking out than slacking off, since I'm not really the slacking type. Knowing that I won't be returning to Oberlin next year is one of the scariest things I can think of right now. Can I actually handle the real world? How will I not die of hypothermia in December? I can proudly say, however, that as of yesterday, after a month long, uber-stressful search, I will not be starving to death or squatting in my parents house after graduation- I have successfully secured a year long teaching fellowship at a swanky prep school in New England called Concord Academy. I'll be teaching Latin and "involv[ing] [myself] fully in the life of Concord Academy, which should be interesting since they don't have a swim team. When I started looking for gainful employment, I realized that I would really enjoy coaching, since I love swimming and it has been such a huge part of my life for so long, and decided that if I did end up getting a teaching job, I would definitely becoming involved with the swim program. So, naturally, I would get a job at a school that doesn't have a team. I suppose I could start one, but who would continue it after I left? Or maybe that would force CA to hire me for another year. And another, and another...
Needless to say, I'm excited about my future and trying not to give up completely on my last module at Oberlin. That has proven difficult, however, since I know have a job for next year secured and the weather is finally getting beautiful again. My thesis is due on the 24th, so we'll see how work on that progresses. Let the battle between Ploy, work, and Spring begin...