#40Strong

Swimming brought me to TAMU...I transferred from Auburn at the end of my sophomore year. I honestly could not have picked a better university to finish my college swimming career and my degree in Animal Science at than Texas A&M. One of the main reasons I transferred back to Texas was due to homesickness. TAMU was the perfect remedy. The Aggie family is a home and a family that no other university compares to.

The transition was extremely smooth with the welcoming arms of the women's swim team coaches, staff, and teammates. I was so happy to be closer to my family in Arlington and back in the great state of Texas! I felt like it was a tight knit family on and off-campus. My professors truly seemed to care about me as a student athlete. And let's be honest, there is NOTHING like an Aggie Football Game, WHOOP! I have so many great memories of all things Aggie Traditional including my ring ordering, ring-day, ring dunk, swim meets, athletic games (football, baseball, soccer, basketball, etc), sharing meals with the other athletes at Cain Hall, weight training workouts in the football team's gym, tail-gating in my hand-painted overalls, Midnight Yell!, the Aggie Cheers, and even my SGU (St. George’s University, Grenada) veterinary school interview by an Aggie Alum in the MSC.

Define "normal", haha!

A "normal" day as a student athlete is anything but normal. It is the definition of discipline. My roommate and I would wake up at 5:15 a.m. to be diving into a freezing cold pool for morning swim practice at 6 a.m. A weight workout would follow the approximate 2 hour pool practice. Then it was off to 9 a.m. classes. I actually spent many lunch breaks studying on campus or taking a nap on a couch for a few recovery winks. Evening practice was typically from 5-7 p.m. After that, it was studying again all night, dinner, and trying to get enough hours of sleep to recover for the next day.

Saturday afternoons and Sundays were the only non-swimming times...unless there was a swim meet. Swim meets would also be out-of-town, often-times presenting another academic challenge ...to be able to find the time for studying and make-up classes/quizzes/tests. I would not change it for the world though! I cannot tell you how much I miss being a part of a team. While free time seemed nearly nonexistent, oddly my time management was much greater then. I will forever cherish my time as an athlete, a student, and an Aggie...because they all have a sense of "team" about them...a sense of "family".

Women's Swimming and Diving from 2002-2004. Pre-Veterinary Society. TAMU Community Orchestra (played the violin).

Swim Meets at the Rec Center, football games, and tail-gating! The spirit of Aggie Athletics! There was so much support from the community toward all athletics including the community/student body/alumni that REALLY made the Aggie Family something entirely unique to Texas A&M. The chills I would get looking up into the stands of the fans in the natatorium before taking my mark for a 50-yard freestyle race is something I'll never forget!

The character-building skills learned as a college athlete and as an academic student will continue to shape and influence my life forever. I learned skills such as time-management, discipline, humility, positivity, teamwork, leadership, passion, fearlessness, gratitude, problem-solving, optimism, how to handle defeat with the anticipation of the next opportunity, learning to listen and take instruction, tenacity, and many, many more. All of these have driven my curiosity for adventure. I've always tried to give back to the environment, be true to my beliefs and my faith, and remember where one started from.

Most of my adventures have all included raising money for a charitable division of my profession of veterinary medicine via the Banfield Charitable Trust (BCT) or others. These programs help struggling owners and pets in need of veterinary care. In veterinary school at Grenada, I initiated island-wide "One Health One Medicine" clinics bringing veterinary care/medical care/public health information for free to the people and animals of the island of Grenada.

I have swam 22+ miles across the English Channel, ran 7 marathons on 7 continents linked with 7 humans via bungee cords in 11 days (the goal was 7, a 4-day delay occurred in Antarctica. This sounds INSANE but clearly I missed the sense of TEAM that I had as an Aggie athlete to be tied to people!) -- all raising money/ awareness for pets in need.

TAMU gave me the skills that built the courage and passion to go after even more dreams such as completing the 140.6 mile Ironman, climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, almost running the tour of continents of marathons twice now, attempting my private pilot's license, and make numerous local TV/news appearances as well as host future vet programs at the children's museum giving back to the city of Houston. TAMU gives one the courage and the sense of humility to dream big, to dare to dream, and to give back.

I'll forever be grateful to the TAMU community, my coaches Steve Bultman and Kristin Hill, the other staff members, the student body, the university, my friends and team-mates, my family, and my professors for giving me the support and wholeness of a family during my time as an Aggie. I wouldn't change it for anything.

Well, at A&M there were swimming accomplishments, as well as being a part of our NCAA Division I relay, an Academic All-American, and graduating at the top of my class.

It is absolutely INCREDIBLE to see where the Women's Swimming and Diving has gone since my graduation. The team is always at the top and even with Olympians now...talent developed by the coaches of an incredibly impressive caliber! It makes me so proud to have swam at TAMU.