When I was in grade school I swam on a swim team for two seasons until I began to play competitive tennis. No longer putting in my time at the pool, I began to swim distances in the open water and through my teenage years I swam many miles in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. Three years ago I joined a master's swim team in the Adirondack Mountains. In addition to training in the pool, my coach--Peggy Bolster, MIMS 2008--Mary Burke, and I began to swim long distances in Lake Champlain. We continued to swim through the fall and winter in the lake, jumping in at an ADK camp where bubblers kept the water from freezing over. Since moving to Cambridge, I have been swimming in beautiful Walden Pond and in the MIT Master's program.