8 years of Swim Banquets

Tonight we went to my daughter's swim banquet. This is my 8th swim banquet in a row that I have attended as both my daughters are swimmers. They both are very accomplished swimmers and I have enjoyed being their biggest fan.  One of the parents had a slide show of swimming pictures running during the banquet.  It was fun to try to identify all the swimcap clad swimmers.  It takes a real talent to pick your son/daughter out of a sea of orange swim caps swimming freestyle in the pool. My daughter was awarded several plaques and I was a bit teary watching her receive her very last swimming awards. I realized I will not be attending any more meets. I won't be sitting for 10 hours just to watch her swim an event that lasts less than one minute. My bathroom won't have the overwhelming aroma of chlorine any more. I won't have to do an entire load of wet towels. I won't have to remind her to put her hat on because once again her hair is frozen solid. You think all of those thoughts would bring a little smile to my face - but really the only thing I can think of is..... I won't see my daughter's face as soon as she touches the wall at the end of her event. She looks for me in the crowd and smiles at me every time. It is a smile that can light up a room. And no matter how she finishes - I smile right back. I will miss that. I will miss her very wet hugs and all the stories about her swim practices and swim friends and swim finishes. It will be a long winter season next year without all the swim antics to break up the dreary winter days. Both coaches came up to me and said they didn't know what they were going to do without a Yesteryear Acres kid swimming for them.  I agreed. What are we going to do? Hmmmmmm. Well - my son IS going to be starting high school next year.  He is rather tall and very athletic. He already runs cross country and track sooooooooo maybe my days of wet towels aren't behind me! I have 6 months to work on him before swim season starts again. I need to be subtle. I need to be understated.  Maybe I will start by leaving swim goggles under his pillow and then while he sleeps - thoughts of swimming will enter his subconscious and suddenly he will wake up one morning and think, "Hey, I think I will join the swim team!"  Yes. Good Plan. I can smell the chlorine already!