Michael+Usewick+2014

New Years in San Diego  On an average new year’s eve, my family tends to do the same thing from year to year. The tradition of gathering with family and family friends at my grandparents’ house in Long Island NY has been continuous for as long as I can remember. We play football, watch football, relax, catch up with one another, and, most of all, eat. Every year my brothers and I look forward to this time as one of the most fun and enjoyable family reunion type occasions we attend as a family.  This year, however, was different, if not for my family, definitely for me. It was different because this new year’s eve I spent in sunny San Diego, instead of freezing Long Island. I spent the day with my fellow SVY teammates who decided to attend this year’s training trip for a week during winter break. Each year my swim team, Somerset Valley YMCA, or SVY, takes a trip to a vacation spot in a state that is still warm in the winter (usually either California or Florida) with the sole purpose to train harder than ever before. To give an idea of what the trip entails here’s an example of how an average day on the trip went this year: Wake up at 4:30 AM to get on a school bus at 5:00 to get to the pool at 5:30. Set up the pool with lane lines, and lights (it’s about 40 degrees F outside in the morning in SD, and still very dark) Get in at 6:00 and have a workout until 8:00 Return to hotel, eat and sleep until 1:00 PM, when we board a bus to 2nd workout Land workout from 2-3, swim from 3-5 Return to hotel to eat and sleep again at around 10:00  As you can probably see, this using this schedule for a week would make anyone extremely tired, now throw in a new year’s eve celebration. On December 31, staying awake until 12:00 became not a party, but a test of will power. I personally fell asleep at least 3-4 times in the time between 11:30 and the ball dropping alone. When the ball finally did fall, and at last we were allowed to leave, everyone immediately fell deeply asleep… for around 3.5 hours at which point we had to wake up for the next practice.