Great Place to Meet

Daughter of mine had her first meet of the Synchronized Swim season.

This is her first year as an intermediate. This made for a great meet off the bat for families...no listening to the same song over and over again. You see, when you are a novice, all routines involve the same song. This is nice in theory, but after hearing a Peppermint Twist medley more than a few times in practice, then over and over again through everyone's routines, you can really start to not like the Peppermint Twist or anything remotely peppermint even. By the second meet of the year, you start to dread it. In any case, intermediate routines mean that the song is chosen by the coaches and girls. YAY!

Daughter beautiful, has a Rubber Ducky/Splish, Splash medley for her solo routine. Her step-mother created a kick-ass ducky costume to go with the routine. The team has a "Pirate" medley with really great costumes made by an exceptionally talented team mom with a ton of patience. The head pieces for both held up well to the routines, always a touchy point with the first meet, what looks great above water, falls apart, manages too much drag, or some such under the stress of the routine. This is also a sign of managing to shellac a child's head with enough Knox to hold EVERY hair in place and enough bobby pins to hold a Boeing 747 from flight.

All of that is well and good, my daughter looked drop-dead adorable, (though she always does, I do manage to make good-looking children, in addition to intelligent, wonderful ones) the other girls looked great. Nice enough things.

My sweet girl did a wonderful job.

No, she didn't come in first for her solo routine. She didn't come in first for figures. She did come in first as part of her team coming in first for the team routine. But, the important thing didn't show in the ribbons.

The really important thing is this: my child has really worked hard and it shows. She knows what she is doing and how to do it. She knows what a meet really means. (Days before her first meet ever she said to me "what is a meet?") She still gets flustered with the where do I go and when. But, once she is queued up ready to go, wow. Just wow. I hold my breath the entire time she does the solo show. I try not to get leaky eyes at the awesomeness of it all. I am a little better with the team portion, but not much.

The really amazing part about all of this is I can watch and ache and worry, but I know it is all her, her and her team and their hard work. I make sure she gets to practice when she is home with us. I talk with her about what she likes, hates and loathes about synchro, practice (rain, laps), meets (knox, waiting). But, other than the fact that my mother did "water ballet" as a teen and I never have met a body of water that I didn't love,neither of which have been determined to be genetic as far as I know, so synchro is truly HER thing. Watching your child develop a love for, skills and a passion for something you admire but can't do, is just downright incredible. Magical.

I am proud of her for all her work. I am proud of her for all the times she has gone to practice even when it has meant a quick dinner on a Sunday night, a cold practice in the rain after a long day at school. I am proud of her for just having the guts to get up and do a solo routine in front of a gazillion girls, their coaches and parents and smile through it all. I am proud of her knowing what she wants to do and for the fact that she actually does it.