Rowing is a huge part of my weekly routine, six days out of seven I have practice, and I never regret a single moment of practice. Rowing has shaped me to adapt to my surroundings, work as hard as possible, and made me mentally strong. The summer after fifth grade, my mom signed me up for the Oakland Strokes Learn to Row summer camp. I was so nervous to learn a new sport with no one I knew, and all I knew about rowing was that my sister was doing it at the time. When I asked my sister if she could come with me to the camp, she signed up as a volunteer and was the only person I knew there. The week long camp began at eight in the morning on a monday, and I was dropped off at the boathouse, waiting for my sister to come. I felt a knot in my stomach
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By then I had made some friends, a girl named Xanthe and another named Serena. We were all in the same boat both literally and figuratively. All three of us were new at the sport and all three of us in the middle school girls eight. We rowed out past the first bridge, past the second bridge and in that last thirty minutes before the race we learned something new, how to feather the blade. This is to make the boat more aerodynamic, and also so our oars wouldn’t get stuck in the water. On our way back to the start line we practice feathering our blades. And it all came together, we lined up at the start line and made sure our boats were even. We observed our opponents, we were against the high school guys eight, the high school girls eight, and the middle school boys eight. We were the smallest, and possibly the weakest, but that didn’t mean anything to us. When the race started we sped to the catch, dipped our blades into the water, and didn't get very far. We slowed our way up to the catch the next one and got a longer stroke, but we were behind now. For the next 500 meters we pulled hard and tried our hardest. We came in close to the middle school boys eight, but last. The race lasted about 4 minutes, and we did it three more times. When we finally docked I was slightly saddened by the fact that I had learned so much and now it was
By then I had made some friends, a girl named Xanthe and another named Serena. We were all in the same boat both literally and figuratively. All three of us were new at the sport and all three of us in the middle school girls eight. We rowed out past the first bridge, past the second bridge and in that last thirty minutes before the race we learned something new, how to feather the blade. This is to make the boat more aerodynamic, and also so our oars wouldn’t get stuck in the water. On our way back to the start line we practice feathering our blades. And it all came together, we lined up at the start line and made sure our boats were even. We observed our opponents, we were against the high school guys eight, the high school girls eight, and the middle school boys eight. We were the smallest, and possibly the weakest, but that didn’t mean anything to us. When the race started we sped to the catch, dipped our blades into the water, and didn't get very far. We slowed our way up to the catch the next one and got a longer stroke, but we were behind now. For the next 500 meters we pulled hard and tried our hardest. We came in close to the middle school boys eight, but last. The race lasted about 4 minutes, and we did it three more times. When we finally docked I was slightly saddened by the fact that I had learned so much and now it was