Is my essay about my life in swim good for a college essay?

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We lived in Arizona, at least a mile away from everything, in the middle of the desert. My parents put me on a competitive swim team when I was five and then stopped when we moved to Colorado when I was six.

I didn’t start swimming again until the summer after fifth grade on my local swim team. My summers consisted of early wake-ups and swimming. For years, I was only on the team because my parents made me. I dreaded each morning I had to wake up for practice. I didn’t care if it was good exercise or even if I was slightly good at it. Each practice I counted down the minutes until my uphill bike home.

My opinion didn’t change until the summer of 2020 when the world shut down. I woke up every morning that summer wishing I was at the pool instead. I missed seeing my teammates, the ones I didn’t want to know and wasn’t friends with. I missed being in the water. I started my freshman year of high school online, waiting for winter to come around so I could swim again.

The first day of practice came and I was so out of shape, but I was ecstatic to be there. I finally could see other people. This practice changed everything for me. Swimming and I became inseparable. When seasons ended, I counted the days until the next started and swam on my own in off-seasons.

Over the years, my main stroke changed a lot. Backstroke, breaststroke, repeat. Never butterfly, never IM. That was until the summer after sophomore year, 2022. My coaches made me race the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter IM every meet. I struggled on the inside. I felt as if I was drowning and no one could save me, but my times said the opposite. Every race I dropped more and more time. I became confident in these events and got good at them. I made it to finals in both of them. My main events became clear.

High school season came around and I froze. A fear of not being good enough came over me like a dark cloud on a stormy day. Every meet I couldn’t bring myself to race 100 fly. My cloud stayed until there was a month left in the season. The thought of state made me say What if I made it in fly? From then on, I only swam 100 fly.

Swim and Dive league meet, finals, February 2023. My time was 2 seconds away from making state.“Swimmers, take your mark…” says the starter. Beep, the buzzer goes and I take off. The first 50 meters flew by. I took a breath and caught a glimpse of the clock, 31 seconds. I can make it, go a little faster. I make my turn and start the next 25. My underwater became much longer. I was a little behind, but nothing I couldn’t make up in the last 25 meters. Keep going. I hit the wall. I don’t even try to catch my breath and look at the clock. 1:07.69. Did I make it? My brain starts to clear my scattered thoughts. No. 0.69 seconds away from the state cut. I messed up. I dropped time but then started sobbing. I didn’t talk to my coaches after my race due to fear of disappointment. My parents came down to the deck to congratulate my PR. Seeing them just made it worse. I thought I failed them, my team, my coaches. I talked to my coach and he told me I’m going to state in the relay. My month of hard work had paid off. I had the fastest split on the team. I made it. This made me vow to never let fear get in the way of future success.