As the school year picked back up after the break, sophomores plunged into the Niles West swimming pool. As a sophomore myself, getting into the pool in the middle of the school day is not my favorite thing to do.

One of my biggest irritations with this is wet hair. Coming from someone with long hair that takes forever to dry, walking around with wet hair is not the most pleasant experience. On the first day of the swim unit I walked to my next period with my hair dripping water, and I was definitely getting stares from everyone else. We get 8-10 minutes to change which might seem like enough but when you account, for showering off, changing, and drying your hair on top of that there is almost no time, making you run out of the locker room to catch your next class.

Another thing I would say is that the pool is actually freezing. When you jump in you will start shivering, you might try to get warm but physically can’t until you do your two laps which is just bad. However, when you get out of the pool you are even colder! I tried to warm myself with a towel but that wouldn’t help either.

My biggest problem about the swim unit though would be the makeup policy. If you get sick, get your period or just miss one day you have to make it up during a study hall or lunch period. I am already uncomfortable with swimming in my own class and now I have to make it up with another class during my free periods. I don’t think that’s the best way to do it, we should be able to make it up with a cardio lab instead, it would be much more convenient for everyone too.

Throughout all of this, I have gained massive respect for any swimmer out there. I did two laps, pretty slowly, and by the end I was winded, I don’t know how they do it. I was exhausted after the two laps, which is pretty sad to say as an athlete. This makes the rest of the day pretty miserable for me, I am tired, hungry, cold and my hair is wet.

However, through all of this, there is one big plus, everyone is going through the same pain as me, so I definitely bonded with them much more than expected. From sharing shampoo, goggles and even combs to talking about how much we hate swimming it brought us together saying that we are lifelong friends after this experience. Knowing someone is going through the same thing makes it a lot less stressful.

I would say, though I am a bit dramatic about it, the swim unit is one of the worst things any student can go through.