Choices, Character, and Integrity

"The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts… The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny…it is the light that guides your way.” – Heraclitus 504 BC

For the last month or two, every single time I stop to think about what I’m doing, who I am, and what I’ve become as a person, I can’t help but be proud of where I am. I am a senior in college at Bryant University, a place that my parents forced me to visit and therefore miss football practice on Columbus Day of my senior year in high school. I didn’t want to check the school out, but I did, and now, four years later, all I have is six months and I’ll be graduating from Bryant. 

I couldn’t be any happier with my decision to come to Bryant, to become a member of the Division I Varsity swim team. I wasn’t recruited to the team, but I was told by Head Coach Katie Cameron that there were spots for swimmers with previous experience for anyone that was willing to work hard. 

I jumped at the opportunity, and now I am enjoying my last season as a Bulldog as a senior Captain. And it wasn’t because I miraculously became an incredible swimmer over-night; as a matter of fact, I am still one of the slowest guys on the team for the fourth straight year. But I took what Coach Cameron told me as a senior in high school, that there are spots for anyone who is willing to work hard, and I did the work. I worked hard every single day, and now I am trying to get the freshmen to do the same thing.

As a senior, it is weird to see these freshmen on the team go through the same things I was going through just three years ago because it feels like it was last week. Falling asleep in class after the first few weeks with morning practices, having to go to required Study Hall for a certain amount of hours every week, dealing with the different way classes and exams work. But I realized, that is part of college, and the only way to really learn how it works is to go through it, make your mistakes, and eventually learn and get better at everything. They don’t completely understand that you don’t have to drink every single weekend just because you’re in college. They don’t realize you don’t have to stay up and hang out with your roommates until midnight every night because you’ll miss out on the social opportunities. They don’t realize how much time they waste on Facebook every single day…

But as a freshmen, I didn’t realize that either. So instead of trying to help them avoid the mistakes I made, I’ve decided it’s the rights of passage, and hopefully they’ll learn from them too. It is part of growing up.

One thing, however, that I am completely serious about when it comes to the freshmen swimmers on Bryant swimming, is what Coach Cameron allowed me to use to get a spot on a Division I Athletic program – work ethic. Some people see the Captain of a team as the best swimmer, or the most talented, or the coach’s pet. But for me, I could care less about all of that. All I care about is that every single person pushes themselves to get better every single day. It is a long and exhausting season, and a tedious sport with countless hours of training and very little opportunities to reap the benefits. 

The quote above signifies my personal belief in terms of choices, character, and integrity. I am trying to bestow among my teammates the same thing, in particular the freshmen. I honestly believe that if you work as hard as you can no matter what you are doing, in the long run, you will always be rewarded. When was the last time you ever regretted doing something difficult to the best of your ability, even if you struggled because it was actually that challenging? The answer, at least for me, is never. 

Your choices create your character, and your character decides your integrity. And like Heraclitus said thousands of years ago, your integrity is your destiny. While I am willing to watch them learn on their own, make mistakes, and experience failure to some extent when it comes to the process of being a college athlete in a challenging school on a successful team. 

Under no circumstances, however, will I let the freshmen, or anyone on the team for that matter, not apply themselves every single day to their fullest ability. In the sport of swimming, there are days when you are exhausted and have nothing left to give. But that doesn’t matter, giving all that you can, even if it is close to nothing, is what decides your integrity.

And your integrity is not only in the pool or the weight room; your integrity is who you are.It goes with you your entire life. If you are lazy in swimming, you'll be lazy in life. If you give everything you have everyday in swimming, you'll give everything had in the real world - to your job, to your family, and to all of your endeavors. And therefore, you'll reap the benefits of doing so, and you will have a good life.

I take great pride in being one of the two Captains for the Bryant University Men’s Swim Team, and I firmly intend to enforce my personal feelings of work ethic onto the rest of the program. The only limits that exist on us at students, athletes, and friends, are those that are self-imposed. Our integrity is what decides those limits, nothing else. 

So for the rest of my career on the Bryant Swim Team, for the rest of my time at Bryant, for the rest of my life, I plan on shaping my choices to reflect my character, my integrity, and most importantly, my destiny. And I urge you to do the same.