My Greatest Swimming Achievement Thus Far

One of my favorite poems is by Ralph Waldo Emerson on Success.  He wrote:  To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded.

What I love about this poem and the message is that greatness and success can come from the everyday situations in life.  To live as a good person and treat others, even those who do not always seem to deserve it, with respect is being successful.  You do not need money, you do not need fame, you just need to take your life and be the best at it with where you are on this earth.

My greatest swimming accomplishment, to date, came to me a few months ago.  I was sitting in my kitchen and received a text from my best friend across the street.  She had to share something with me and asked that I come over.  I obliged and when I walked in the door, she told me that Molly, her second grader, was asked to write an essay in school and the topic was: Who is a real life hero to you and why?  Naturally, I assumed it was about my friend or her husband, or one of Molly’s grandparents and started to read.  This is what Molly Wrote (I have attached the original as well).

Lori Is King

I am doing my paragraph on Lori King, my neighbor.  The reason why I am doing it on my neighbor is because she is a great swimmer and a great person.  She swam the Catalina Channel which is 23 miles and about 66 degrees.  Yesterday she did the Polar Bear Plunge.  She also trains really hard.  But most importantly, she is very helpful to our family and hers.  She is my mom’s best friend.  They are both from PA, and they call each other BF.  We call her Lor Lor.  Lori King has taught me to believe in myself!

Molly Irene McFeely, this sweet, beautiful, quiet child picked me!  She never openly asks about my swims.  I come home from them, she sits and listens and then runs and plays.  To be chosen for her essay blew me away, gave me a feeling of joy that made my eyes fill with tears, butterflies in my stomach.  Ralph Waldo Emerson was right…to win the affection of small children is certainly to have succeeded.  There is no better feeling.  Attached is Molly’s Essay and a picture of her on her communion day with my little munchins.