The Raging Elitist

Category: Dear Elite

Mornings

I’ve been through many iterations of morning swim practice in my life, each with its own particular mix of pain and pleasure. As a nervous six-year-old summer leaguer new to the lowcountry, I relished the wonderful early morning heat of mid-June at Wild Dunes Dolphins practices, so complete that a little kid could be outside…
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Tween Dad

On an after-dinner walk during the boys’ first week of summer break, I was suddenly stricken by the realization that Danyelle and I are nearly exactly halfway done raising children, at least in the sense of housing them while they’re still legal minors. Cartter is a couple months away from his tenth birthday, and Scotty…
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The Boys of Summer

Summer tried to sneak up on us this year. Baseball games, summer league meets, and evening walks worked their way in around the edges of our routine and occupied the space in our lives allotted for pleasant distractions. It all seemed so easy and whimsical until I looked at the calendar and suddenly realized –…
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Little Pitchers

Even before I had children, I always imagined my kids would start getting much more tolerable between eight and ten years of age, that at that point they’d finally start to become real people whom an adult might deem acceptable company. Now that Scotty is eight, and Cartter nearly ten, I realize that in one…
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Break

For a moment I thought I wasn’t going to succumb to the stress of spring’s arrival – the skipping ahead an hour, the blanket of pollen that covers the lowcountry for weeks on end, the portent of summer and the dramatic shift in the family dynamic that season brings – I thought this was the…
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Best Times

Watching my nine-year-old swim his first ever 500 free, I stood on the deck and shook my head in disgust while writing down 50 splits of forty-two and forty-three seconds. Cartter was babying his race, swimming his way to a time that didn’t reflect his preparation or his ability. A week prior I’d watched him…
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Swim Meet Nerves

In the leadup to the State Championship swim meet, I kept on trying to explain to people the unlikeliness of my son Cartter’s event lineup, particularly the rare combination of youthful inexperience and high stakes that would kick off his weekend. “South Carolina Swimming Age Group Champs” in Greenville would be his first travel meet…
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Just the Dog

After years of imagining how sad losing the family dog will be, I was surprised by the huge relief I felt when I learned she might have bone cancer. I was on the pool deck coaching and happened to have my phone out, because I was showing a swimmer a video I’d taken of his…
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A Dad and a Son

Lying on the couch watching a movie with Scotty’s head on my shoulder, neither one of us wanted to admit to our discomfort. We both adjusted and readjusted for a half hour, wanting the moment of closeness to last, at the same time wanting to separate and have our own space. Scotty was the one…
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How to Talk to Your Kid About Swimming: Say Nothing

The mother of a sometimes-lazy ten-year-old girl recently asked me on deck what she’s supposed to say to motivate her daughter. I think she was a little surprised when I was quick to respond, shrugging my shoulders and suggesting “Just don’t say anything.” The child is no world-beater. She has a little talent, but she…
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