University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOL SWIMMING & DIVING DIARIES - LAUREN LeROY
February 12, 2007 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Feb. 12, 2007
The other morning I went to church and as my Pastor began his sermon on "Spending Time Wisely", I began making many connections with the present situation for all of us. His words hit me with a great deal of insight, analogy and emotion, three things I really seem to do and have a lot of. It inspired me to write.
Time is a constant stress for us. We have tight schedules, people to meet, things to do, cuts to make, and usually by the end of the year, season or day, we realize there are so many things we didn't accomplish which we had originally planned on doing. We can't control it and we can't get it back. We ask ourselves, "Where did the time go? Am I really a senior or a junior? Do I seriously only have one more shot to battle the water, defy gravity or race the clock?"
Dr. Stephen's sermon continued with ways to reduce this stress, to PRIORITIZE, to put the important things first. "What do we spend our time doing? Does what we are doing really matter?" The answers to these questions have different definitions for each of us. Obviously, we our whole team believes in what we are doing or we wouldn't continually do it, and we all represent a title. Not just the title of being a Lady Vol, but the title that claims who we are, our honor, of why we are here and what we have worked for. Whatever your motivation is to swim or dive, let it come from your heart, because without heart, death is guaranteed.
Our number of days in this sport, in life in general, is limited. Don't pass through life only living by the limitations time has set you, but live the things that matter most! Leave your mark and make each stroke, each dive and each person you meet mean something. Stop trying to resist the inevitable and make what you have count! Time is not in our hands, what we do with it is. We are never given more time no matter how much we worry about it; therefore, trust in yourself and your abilities, knowing that if you've put in the hard work, it WILL pay off one way or another. At the end of the day, or a career, the only person we need to satisfy is ourselves. I pray in all that we do and we live with passion and purpose.
