Recently, the Legacy swim team had a meet at the Mansfield ISD Natatorium. As I tried to walk through the doors to get to the pool deck, the flow of people going in and out the doors slowed down. Up ahead of me, a girl carefully walked with a white cane in her hand and her mom by her side. I didn’t think much of a blind girl swimming at a meet until I saw her again towards the end.
My relay stood behind the blocks as we waited for our event. I looked over and saw her on the blocks. The race began and she dove in and started swimming. As she approached each wall, one of her team mates tapped her head with the white cane signaling that she needed to do a flip-turn. She swam her leg of the relay and my team watched in amazement as she finished.
After my race, I joined some of the other girls to cheer for the last boys’ relay. I saw her sitting on the bleachers behind me. I wanted to talk to her so badly, but I felt too nervous. The other girls on my team kept telling me to go say something to her, so after about seven minutes of going back and forth, I decided to talk to her. I told her that I felt nervous about talking to her and that watching her swim was so inspiring to me and the rest of my team and she smiled beautifully and thanked me.
After talking to her, I wanted to be her best friend (in the least creepy way possible). I looked her up in the meet information packet and discovered her name to be Brittany. I can’t imagine how difficult it was to try to learn to swim without being able to see what stroke to do or where to go, and I can’t imagine how much she works at the things that come easily to me. Brittany didn’t choose to be blind. Being blind gave Brittany a challenge and something she had to learn to work around as she grew up, and by the results of her meet, she has done a great job of it.
Brittany should be an inspiration to everyone, because despite the difficulties that come along with being blind, she still participates in all the activities she loves to do. No one should give up their dreams just because something doesn’t happen the way they want it to. Life flies by quickly and should be lived to the fullest, regardless of your circumstances.
Zaira • Dec 5, 2014 at 11:45 am
Hi. Thanks for sharing this. About 2 years ago, in a meet, I watched a deaf guy compete. When he was on the block, there was a person who tapped him on the back so that he knew it was time to dive in. I couldn’t talked to him, in any way, but that inspired me too…and also make me want to learn sign language.
Brittany Breen • Dec 2, 2014 at 9:58 pm
Thank you, Haley, for writing this beautiful article about me. Coach Dabgelmaier showed it to my mom, who then read it to me. Those are some of the sweetest things anyone has ever said about me. I read it and it literally brought me to tears (joyful tears.) It touched my heart so much. People say I am an inspiration, and that has such an impact on me. However, I would never have gotten half as far as I have without such kind people supporting me. They inspire me to do more, push myself harder, swim a little faster. Yes, being blind may make certain tasks more arduous then they would normally be, but I can never get up. If you fall in life, you have two choices as to your next course of action… You can either stay there and give up, or you can choose to get back up and not let it get the best of you. Given the choice, I will always choose the second option. For me it’s not a choice. So thank you so much, Haley, for inspiring me to be a better swimmer, and a better person.