Of the extracurricular activities that I have participated in, the one that has meant the most to me is swimming. I started swimming when I was nine years old, while living in France. It quickly became a way for me to meet new people and to make friends with people that had similar interests as me. I continued swimming when I moved back to the U.S. The sport continued to play a major role in my life. Each year I would commit myself to the sport more and more. During my years in high school, I began to train close to twenty hours a week. From the time and effort that I put into the sport, swimming returned to me a few important qualities that are needed in the real world. The first was goal setting. As in any sport, being able to set and work towards goals is very important. However, in swimming it is twice as important because you have to be able to keep these goals in mind at all times and to adjust them as you achieve them. A second quality that I gained from swimming is time management. Training nearly twenty hours a week during high school, made getting homework and studying hard at first. I had to learn to pace myself and balance my time so that I could maintain my grades and still be able to attend swim practices and go to the meets on the weekends. With these two qualities inspired by swimming, I have been able to use them with my schoolwork and everything that I do in life. The sport of swimming is very important to me, not just because it is fun, but also because it help to prepare me for the real world. .
2. Emory is the school for me because the college offers the right setting and atmosphere, along with a great swim team. The first reason Emory is right for me is that its swim team is excellent. The men's team is closely approaching a national championship, and I think I could add some depth to the team. It has always been a dream of mine to take part in a team that works together to win something.