#varsityswim

[dominicarzapalo]

This is GOLD LOL #Speedo #FreshmanYear #VarsitySwim #PacificHighSchool #PMOB 🏊‍♂️😂🤦‍♂️👍 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8XzrW8gw_e/?igshid=1je6by98dfkjm

[em-cheng]

My thoughts are a little scattered everywhere, but here it is:

This song and Hopeless Love, Daphne Loves Derby were on loop the summer of 2007. It was the first time I've ever lost someone so close to me. Oh boy was I a mess. I still am..but I guess I'm just better at hiding it. I don't think I've ever cried so much before. My bed was 90% tears and 10% mattress that summer. This experience really changed me forever. I no longer felt like a careless and carefree teenager. I haven't felt the same since that day, July 6th, 2007. I remember how I found out. Through a moment of silence announcement dedicated to you at Senior Mets at Lehman College. I remember racing after finding out..I couldn't see, I couldn't breath, I couldn't feel myself in the water or even my body. Everything was numb. I felt like I was out of my own body watching everything crumble around myself.

You've always believed in me. Whenever I doubted myself, you were there to pick me right up and tell me that you truly believed in me and that I had no reason to doubt myself. You believing in me, it has motivated me in all my achievements. I can't ever thank you enough for planting that efficacy seed in me years ago.

There have been so many times when I really just wanted to talk to you. Losing our pool, losing Dave, applying for nursing school, getting into nursing school..you would have known exactly what to say. This past year, I've become close to someone who shows qualities just like the ones you have. I am convinced that my friendship with him was a gift you planned for me. Of course it isn't the same, it won't ever be, but talking to him, getting advice from him, his belief in my potential, it all reminds and refreshes me about what our friendship was like. I've been thinking about you every time I needed to self-motivate. "Coach Farrell never gave up on me; I won't let myself give up either," I say to myself. It really gets me through the worst of times.

It's 6 years later. I'm not any less sad, but I have turned this experience into something positive. Coach, besides teaching me to believe in myself, you're a person I wish to one day be half as great as. Half as humble, half as loving, half as appreciative. "The perfect person." Someone who always took a negative situation and turned it positive. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to swim with you, to laugh with you, to learn from you. You're truly an unforgettable person Coach Farrell. I can't wait to tell my children about the incredible person I had the privilege to have in my life.

It's kinda hard with you not around Know you in heaven smilin' down Watchin' us while we pray for you Every day we pray for you Til the day we meet again In my heart is where I'll keep you friend Memories give me the strength I need  to proceed Strength I need to believe I'll Be Missing You - P. Diddy