Nishitha Gopinath Week 16 - The Deep End

                                                                                         The Deep End

    Swimming, for me, has become a constant–something slow and steady in an environment that’s always changing. 

    I started the sport when I was two and a half years old. Not in an incredibly competitive, “I’m going to be an Olympian” kind of way, but because my mom thought it was important that I knew how to float. 

    One of my earliest memories is me, sitting on the ledge of my local community’s competitive pool, which felt massive compared to my toddler-sized legs. My coach was in the shallow end, persuading me to jump in, and my mom was crouched behind me on the slippery concrete, reassuring me with gentle encouragement. The water below me looked impossibly blue–clear, calm, and foreign. When I finally jumped, I didn’t feel scared or aghast; I felt calm. I relished the way the coolness wrapped around me, how the smell of chlorine overtook my nostrils, how everything felt quieter when I was in the water. 

    The first time I held my breath underwater, I was shocked at the peace that I felt in those moments, with no overwhelming noise or extraneous activities bombarding my senses. 

    The first time I managed to awkwardly doggy paddle halfway across the pool, I was amazed at the power in my kicks and pulls–at the strength I didn’t know my body was capable of producing. 

    The first time I swam the full length of the pool in a smooth freestyle, I savored the stillness around me, with the only things my brain processing being the rhythm of my heartbeat and the gentle movement of the crystalline water around me. 

    The sport has taken me through various stages of my life. I’ve been a scared seven year old anxiously waiting for her turn during the kiddie swim meets that I thought were so impertinent at the time. I’ve been through the years of competitive swim seasons, filled with memories of rigorous late-night practices, swimming with the sunrise at our 6 am meets, and trying not to choke on the copious amounts of food I was consuming while laughing at a joke my friends said during our banquet to mark the end of the season. I’ve been a coach, passing down the same drills and strokes that I struggled with, now seeing them from the other side. 

    Although I haven’t swam competitively since high school started, I’ve tried my best to maintain my habit of being one with the water. Not out of obligation anymore, but because even now, swimming is one of the places my mind feels clear and my body feels strong. The muscle memory that I have built in my fourteen years of doing the sport is something that I’ve come to rely on. The repetitive nature–pushing off the wall, gliding, kicking, pulling, and breathing, only to do it all over again–is something that grounds me.









Comments

  1. Mridula AnandMay 20, 2025 at 10:49 PM

    Hi Nishitha,
    I like how you strayed away from the common theme of most of these blogs for week 16 about the end of the year. I also really love the vivid descriptions that you center your blog around. The way that you describe swimming in your perspective really shows your love for the sport, even though as you said, competitive swimming has not been a part of your high school life. I feel like all of us can read this blog and relate this back to our own “safe space” that we have in our own lives, whether that be the pool or anything else. I feel like especially in high school, it is really important to have a place where you can simply just calm yourself down and escape the day to day stress that takes up most of our lives. It is also really inspiring how you have taken such an interest in swimming, because if you ask me, every time I go in the 10 ft side of the pool I cannot think about anything except trying not to drown. That’s the beauty of it, though. For one person, swimming is something that calms their nerves, but for another, the exact opposite.

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  2. Hariharan SenthilkumarMay 21, 2025 at 9:32 PM

    Hi Nishitha! As a swimmer myself, this blog post was incredibly relatable. I also started swimming at around 2 years old and I also never experienced fear being in the water. For me, swimming and being in the water was sort of surreal because I felt completely in sync with my body and the rippling pool around me whenever I swam. Your description of being shocked at the peace of holding your breath underwater is very, very relatable to me---some of my earliest memories is diving deep below and just listening to the world. Everything seems quieter, more indistinct, and a bit untethered from reality when your underwater. There is a very specific type of silence that comes from holding your breath underwater that you capture perfectly. My favorite sentence that you wrote was "I savored the stillness around me, with the only things my brain processing being the rhythm of my heartbeat and the gentle movement of the crystalline water around me." This is precisely why I love swimming and I can feel this sentence physically---your writing is gorgeous! Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blogs this year and it was amazing being in your cohort!

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  3. Nichelle RodriguezMay 21, 2025 at 9:58 PM

    Hi Nishitha! I have also been swimming the majority of my life, so I completely understand what you are saying. I had always felt a certain serenity under the blanket of chlorine water, cool and with the sun rays gleaming through the surface, almost shielded away from the rest of the world. Swimming has always been my outlet, my way to cope with stress or any other problems. No matter what I am going through, I always feel as if three tons of weight is lifted off my chest as I enter the pool. Suprisingly enough, even when I am ill (though I would not condone this), I feel as if the pressure leaves my body instantaneously as I go into a pool. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  4. SabiKatMay 22, 2025 at 2:37 AM

    Hi Nishitha! I remember how you used to swim when we were kids, especially how I was so fascinated by the fact that your goggles had prescription lenses! Personally I'm not good at swimming, but your vivid descriptions made me miss the pool and summertime swimming. I think because you grew up with swimming, being at the pool or swimming itself triggers memories for you. I relate to growing up with a sport; I grew up playing tennis with my dad from a young age. Seeing someone play tennis or walking by tennis courts triggers memories from my childhood. Like you, I've stopped playing since I started High School, but I sometimes like to go play for fun with my dad. It's like muscle memory, like you said.

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