The girl was swimming lazily  back and forth in the cold blue swimming pool; the mid afternoon sun's rays were shining harshly on the swimmers backs, and the trees were dancing around freely in the slight breeze. After taking a closer look, based on the swimmers' goose bump covered bodies and chattering teeth, one could tell the pool was practically freezing. After watching the petite brown eyed girl talk to her teammate between sets, she pulled her light blue tinted goggles back over her eyes and reluctantly began lap thirteen.

   As most people’s days were ending, slowly winding down into a calm solitude, overly obvious by the way she carried herself, it was obvious this girl’s day hadn’t even begun. The way she moved, drudging forward with slightly slumped over shoulders, brought in a sense of dread or possibly even a dejection to her persona. She wondered to herself if she’d even be able to make it through her tightly knit back to back schedule without falling apart from exhaustion. As the intense highschool swim practice came to an end, the girl took off sprinting towards the locker room,dodging anyone in her way, and changed as quickly as she possibly could. As she waited for someone, her leg bounced nervously to a rhythmic pattern, as if she was stressed or lost in thought. She was drowning in a sea of grief, constantly struggling to tread water in order to stay afloat. As an overly tall skinny brown haired male came out of the locker room, they took off jogging towards the parking lot in a hurry to get to another location; their hair still dripping wet and water puddles quickly gathering around them. They quickly headed back to their High School, Sandra day O’Connor to get started on the next task of the day, homecoming floats. On their way to the school they frequently made quick stops at the nearest QT to get the closest match to a beneficial dinner that they had time to scarf down.

       As Ava got back to the school, she quickly walked to the back of the school and began brainstorming ideas with her fellow classmates  for the homecoming parade that was coming up very soon. She took control and helped paint, cut wood, hammered, made Home Depot trips, cleaned, all in a matter of hours. She  took little to no breaks throughout the day, only stopping to refill her water bottle or to check her texts. As 7 o’clock quickly rolled around, she sat anxiously waiting for her mom to pick her up to quickly drive her to yet again, another sports team practice. She switched into her soccer uniform in the backseat of the car, and ate a small dinner. She scarfed down diminutive meals such as rice and chicken, salad, or spaghetti while getting driven to her soccer practice that was only a short 5 minute drive from the school . As soon as the long, tiring practice, full of agility tests, possession drills, and shooting was over, Ava had to quickly get to the parking lot to go home. Even after all of this, her night was still not even close to being over.

    Once she finally got home, she would cook up another small meal in order to tame her creeping hunger from all of the day's previous vigorous exercise and activities. As Ava sat down with her dinner, she pulled out her iPad and began her distressing homework for the night,which constantly took multiple hours. Many nights she stayed up struggling while trying to memorize arduous chemistry and geometry notes, in preparation for her constant inflow of quizzes and assessments. The world was moving around her, yet she was stuck. Two feet glued to the ground and unable to move. Her life became a vicious cycle of swimming, STUGO, soccer, eating, homework, and sleep. Again. Again. Again. With a life so predictable, it’s inevitable that one would soon fall into a trance, of lacking effort and only going through the motions. She felt alone, lost in a world with nothing but her thoughts. As the hours dragged into days, and the days dragged into weeks, her steam had quickly run out. Lost in what felt like a never ending cloudy gray day, with no clear skies in sight. As time went on, the feeling of sinking into an excessive amount of school work grew louder and louder. She began to struggle immensely, only being able to put a mediocre work ethic into everything. Ava was up before the crack of dawn at the school getting tutoring done, staying after to take retakes, staying up late at night to do necessary homework and study. It was a constant never ending struggle.

      As the night grew later, Ava would later take a short shower and prepare herself for the next day. She dreaded going to bed knowing that in just a few short hours she would become even more exhausted while trying to get through her next never ending day. The love and excitement that she used to feel throughout the days slowly became dread and annoyance, yet there was no cure in sight. As she fell asleep, the last thing she pictured was her body covered in goosebumps, tense while waiting for the whistle to blow, in order to start lap fourteen.