The holidays have commenced.

Frank, myself, and Nicholas hanging out during
the 2014 SCM Championships.

Today is Christmas Eve and so starts the beginning of the holidays. As with many other families here in the U.S. and around the world, the festivities start today. I will be spending my next two days with my side of the family and with my fiancee's side of the family.

I want to look at another "family" of sorts. This is my swim family. This family is that group of people who you see at every practice, suffer through that long I.M. or butterfly set, and rejoice when one of gets a personal best at swim meets.

Jennifer, Nicholas, Martha, and myself with our ribbons from
the 2014 LCM Championships.

This family is a group of people who share a common passion: swimming. I've found that everyone is so supportive of each other. One of the fears I had when I first started swimming over four years ago was that I'd never fit in. I had this vision that everyone doing Masters swimming was going to be these toned and muscular swimmers, and with an elitist attitude. I thought people would look down on this uberclydesdale and wonder what exactly I was doing, as it was obvious to the eyes that I wasn't a "true" swimmer. Of course this was all in my head.

Instead, I helped to create a small USMS team that open and accepting to everyone: all you have to do is have the passion to swim. It doesn't matter if you are going to qualify for Worlds or if you are just swimming to lose weight. We are all swimmers. We all get in the water and swim. Some of us are fast, others (like me) are not so fast. In the end, it's the passion that defines who you are.

Bill, Jamie, myself, and Martha at the
2013 SCM Championships.

With that, I'd like to encourage everyone with an interest in swimming, whether it is for fitness, recreation, weight loss, or for competition, find a local USMS club in your area and check it out. You might find, like I did, that the folks there will welcome you with open arms. They will become your motivation to get that exercise and make it through that workout. Sometimes we just need a smiling face and some words of encouragement to get off of that couch.

-- the UberClydesdale