Swimming across the Ocean

WORD COUNT: 300

It was pitch black when we pulled my dad out of the ocean. Other than the lights on the boat I was in, there was only darkness. The thick fog blocked the stars. Pulling my dad out of the water happened quickly, he almost unconscious and extremely hypothermic.

The possibility of this was certainly something he had considered over a year earlier when he had come home and told my family that he was going to attempt to swim across the English Channel. Being a person who sets lofty goals, my father had become obsessed with the idea of completing the 21 mile swim from England to France. While my dad nearly qualified for the Olympics in pool swimming twenty years earlier, he had barely been in the water since. Over the next year I witnessed my dad log endless hours in the pool swimming distances that were mentally and physically exhausting. The drive he had was incomprehensible. I remember asking him why he was doing this even though there was a real possibility of failure. He said that setting a goal that you might not achieve is better than living your life in fear of failure.

Early one morning after much waiting, my dad left the shore of England and headed across the ocean with me in the boat beside him. Conditions weren’t good. It was extremely foggy, the water was 60 degrees and there were large waves. Still my dad took stroke after stroke and kept swimming for twelve hours. One mile off the coast of France we pulled him out barely conscious but still attempting to swim. Even though my dad was disappointed in failing he took pride in staying true to what he believed and I will always be proud of what he did that day in the middle of the ocean.


The Point: Setting big and risky goals and not achieving them is better than being too afraid to set goals at all.

Stories of Good and Bad Educational Experiences in School

Best

When I think back on my best educational experience there is one particular class that comes to mind.  It was physics class in twelfth grade, which was supposedly the hardest class in my high school.  My teacher was very outgoing and told us we would have to work very hard to succeed and if we didn’t then we might as well drop the course.  His constant motivation and pushing us to succeed, combined with his great teaching helped me work harder than I ever have and achieve a good mark in a subject that I struggled in.

WORD COUNT: 97

Worst

One of my worst educational experiences occurred in my tenth grade math class after my teacher was involved in a car accident.  As it turned out the car accident was a fender bender in the school parking lot, however this did not stop my teacher from blaming her increasingly poor teaching on the crash.  She would frequently make mistakes, snap at students over nothing or just fail to show up and then blame her behaviour the “traumatic” crash.  As a student that normally excels in math classes, I had a difficult time in this class essentially teaching myself the material out of the textbook. 

WORD COUNT: 100

The Power of Sports

Dylan Kent

WORD COUNT: 302

Sports are something that I believe are extremely important.  Sports provide the opportunity not only for one to participate and enjoy the benefits of athleticism, but also sports provide the opportunity to learn many important life skills and lessons.  Skills like time management, goal setting and determination are all important skills that can be learned and refined in athletics and be useful in life outside of sports. 

I participated in many sports growing up but competitive swimming became my main focus.  I learned many important life lessons from the sport including how to learn from setbacks and to succeed afterwards.  A few summers ago I was at my championship swim meet.  It was the last night of the competition and I was swimming my best race.  My goal in this race was to qualify for Canadian Nationals.  I swam faster than I ever had; I touched the wall and looked up at the clock only to see that I had missed the qualifying standard by a tenth of a second.  I was devastated.  For the entire week that followed all I could think about was what a tremendous failure I was.  It was then, with some help from my coach, that I started to think about what I could do to achieve my goal.  I promised myself I would qualify next year.  I used my past failure as motivation to keep pushing myself.  Early in the season I achieved my goal by qualifying for Nationals not just in my best event but also three others. 

            Lessons like this are learned by athletes in all sports every day.  I believe that lessons like learning how to deal with setbacks and goal setting are important values that can be developed by having a passion for sports and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be able to learn so much from sports.    

BELIEF: I believe that athletics help a person develop key life skills and learn important life lessons that would otherwise difficult to experience.

Life Lessons in Sports

Dylan Kent

WORD COUNT: 301

Sports have always been something very important in life.  I have spent over ten years of my life competitive swimming.  The sport of swimming is incredibly time consuming and both mentally and physically exhausting.  Getting up before 5am to swim and training for over twenty hours a week are just accepted norms in swimming.  While swimming is challenging I have also found that it can be very rewarding and can teach someone important life lessons. 

An example of an important lesson I learned occurred a few summers ago.  It was the last night of my championship competition and I was swimming my best race.  My goal in this race was to qualify for the Canadian Nationals.  I swam faster than I ever had before.  I touched the wall and looked up at the clock only to see that I had missed the qualifying standard by a little under half a second.  I was devastated.  For the entire week that followed all I could think about was what a tremendous failure I was.  It was then, with some help from my coach, that I started to think more constructively on what I could have done to get there.  I made a promise to myself that next year I would qualify.  I reassessed my training and decided I needed to do more than I was currently doing, I needed to work harder.  When swimming started back up again, I put myself back together mentally and was far more driven than before.  I put in every bit of my effort every day.  I used my past failure as motivation to keep pushing myself.  Early in the season I achieved my goal by qualifying for Nationals not just in my best event but also three others. 

            I believe that lessons like learning how to deal with setbacks and goal setting are important values that are can be developed by having a passion for sports. 

BELIEF: I believe that athletics help a person develop key life skills and learn important life lessons that would otherwise difficult to experience.

Generation Tech

Generation Tech would be an appropriate name for my generation.  This generation has become so reliant and adept at using the latest technology that it would be almost impossible for this generation to go about their daily lives without it.  Things such as texting and social networking have become pivotal to this generation.  This reliance on technology has had some positive effects as members of this generation have more access to vast amounts of information and as a result are becoming better informed and educated.  While technology dependency certainly has negative and positive effects, my generation undoubtedly would not be the same without it.    

The White Horse Inn: Seven Hundred Year old Pub and Open Water Swimming Icon

The White Horse Inn is a pub located in the small town of Dover on the South coast of England.  Historically, the White Horse is a place that definitely needs to be preserved as it lies at the foot of a castle and has a rich seven hundred year history.  There is even a small cemetery in the back of the building that has gravestones that date back to the 1300’s.  Aside from the historical significance, the White Horse also has a very unique cultural significance in the town of Dover.

  Dover is the starting place where each year athletes come to attempt to complete the world famous 34 kilometre swim through freezing cold waters across the English Channel.  The White Horse is especially important as it has become a cultural icon for English Channel swimmers.  It has become tradition for swimmers to come and have a famous pint from the White Horse after their swim and then sign their name on the wall in the pub next to all the rest of the Channel Swimmers.  A few years ago I flew to England with my dad to support him in his quest to swim across the Channel.  We visited the pub on the night before my dad attempted the swim.  It was a very special and emotional experience for us to see the names of all these people that have achieved such an accomplishment and to be able to relate to their experience.  Due to the historical importance of the pub as well as the cultural importance to all English Channel Swimmers as well as the community of Dover, the White Horse is a place that matters and needs to be preserved.

 

WORD COUNT: 250

The White Horse Inn: Seven Hundred Year old Pub and Open Water Swimming Icon

The White Horse Inn is a seven hundred year old pub on the South coast of England, located in the town of Dover.  Historically, the White Horse is a place that definitely needs to be preserved as it lies at the foot of a castle and has a rich seven hundred year history.  There is even a small cemetery in the back of the building that has gravestones that date back to the 1300’s.  Aside from the historical significance, the White Horse also has a very unique cultural significance in the town of Dover.  Dover is the starting place where yearly athletes come to try to complete the world famous 34 kilometre swim through freezing cold waters across the English Channel.  The White Horse is especially important as it has become a cultural icon for English Channel swimmers.  It has become tradition for swimmers to come and have a famous pint from the White Horse after their swim and then sign their name on the wall in the pub next to all the rest of the Channel Swimmers.  A few years ago I flew to England with my dad to support him in his quest to swim across the Channel.  We visited the White Horse on the night before my dad would attempt the swim.  It was a very special experience for us to see the names of all these people that have achieved such an accomplishment.  Due to the historical importance of the pub as well as the cultural importance to all English Channel Swimmers as well as the community of Dover, the White Horse is a place that needs to be preserved. 

WORD COUNT: 249

Recycling Style (edited)

Everyone has seen it before; somebody out wearing clothes that were in style decades ago.  Then, all of a sudden, everyone is wearing the same “retro” style clothing.  This phenomenon of recycling decades old clothing styles has become increasingly popular due to original ideas on clothing style running out.

Reusing old clothing styles certainly isn’t new.  The idea of taking pieces of clothing that were trendy years ago and applying a modern variation has been popular for several years now.  More interesting is why this trend has become so popular.  Take for example; sunglasses.  In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s big sunglasses and Ray-ban style sunglasses were worn by everybody that was “cool.”  Now, after years of the big sunglasses trend lying dormant, they can once again be seen being worn by people everywhere. 

Reinventing and recycling clothing styles has become a necessity now, as after years of rapid and drastic style changes trendsetters have run out of truly original styles.  With the world becoming more globalized due to technology, like the internet, styles have been able to be transferred across countries as well as cultural lines.  While at first this created many new and different styles, inevitably the merging of these cultures and styles has begun to create a much more uniform style devoid of original style.  Another reason recycling styles has become so easy is due to the accessibility of knowledge on old styles.  Thanks again to improved technology and the internet; the trendsetters of today can simply research old styles online or look at old photographs of the styles.  This is shown to be true as the age of the trends that are being recycled only goes back as far as there is good documentation and information to research them. 

The idea and trend of recycling old clothing ideas with a modern twist will undoubtedly continue as a lack of truly original ideas, in terms of clothing style, will hamper those trying to create new styles.  Due to this occurrence taking place, the practice of recycling old clothing styles has, in itself, become the new style. 

WORD COUNT: 350

Recycling Style

Everyone has seen it before; somebody out in public wearing clothes that were in style decades ago.  Then, all of a sudden, everyone is wearing the same “retro” style clothing.  This phenomenon of recycling decades old clothing styles has become increasingly popular due to the fact that original clothing style ideas have run out.

Reusing old clothing styles certainly isn’t new.  The idea of taking pieces of clothing that were trendy years ago and applying a modern variation has been popular for several years now.  More interesting is why this trend has become so popular.  Take for example; sunglasses.  In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s big sunglasses and Ray-ban style sunglasses were worn by everybody that was “cool.”  Now after years of Ray-ban glasses lying dormant, they can once again be seen being worn by people everywhere. 

Reinventing and recycling clothing styles has become a necessity now, as after years of rapid and drastic style changes trendsetters have run out of truly original new styles.  With the world becoming more globalized due to technology like the internet, styles have been able to be transferred across countries as well as culture lines.  While at first this created many new and different styles, inevitably the merging of these cultures and styles has begun to create a much more uniform style devoid of original ideas.  Another reason recycling styles has become so easy is due to the accessibility of knowledge on old styles.  Thanks again to improved technology and the internet; the trendsetters of today can simply research old styles online or look at old photographs of the styles.  This is shown to be true as the age of the trends that are being recycled only goes back as far as there is good documentation and information to research. 

The idea and trend of recycling old clothing ideas with a modern twist will undoubtedly continue as a lack of truly original ideas, in terms of clothing style, will hamper those trying to create new styles.  Due to this occurrence taking place, the practice of recycling old clothing styles has in itself become the new style. 

WORD COUNT: 345



The Lesson Book

Reading has always been both a hobby and strength of mine and is now a skill that I sometimes take for granted.  I do, however, occasionally think back to when I learned to read.  I was five years old and one night after dinner my dad told me he was going to teach me how to read.  He had bought this book that contained 100 lessons on how to read, which became known in my family simply as “The Lesson Book.”  So with the lesson book in hand, my dad and I sat on my bed and began the first lesson.  This routine of completing a lesson or two after dinner continued.  Rather than going to watch TV, as many families would do, my dad spent night after night sitting next to me teaching me how to read.  This continued for one hundred consecutive nights until we were done, and during this time I grew to love reading.  I still remember finishing the last lesson by reading to my mom and dad.  I still remember how proud they were.  I still remember the sense of accomplishment I had when I started school and was busy reading novels that were several hundred pages long, while the majority of my classmates struggled pronouncing words longer than four letters.  Reading has been important to me ever since.  I feel immense gratitude to my parents for teaching me this skill at such an early age, as I know believe reading is one of the most important things someone can learn. 

Introduction

Hello readers, my name is Dylan Kent. I am a sophomore at UMBC from Toronto, Canada.

After spending the majority of my life living in Canada, I realized that I really needed a change when I went to college. Being an adventurous person, I wanted to go somewhere that I could meet lots of new people and have new experiences in a different place. Thanks largely in part to the ten years of my life that I have spent competitive swimming, I was able to find out about UMBC and after coming down for a visit I knew that this was a place that would be perfect for me. So I made the decision to come to the USA for school and I haven't looked back since. I look forward to continuing to explore this new place I am in and to continue learn as much as I can along the way.

Word Count: 150