Heads!
Check it!
Weigh enough!
These were all words I was vastly unfamiliar with before joining Princeton’s Varsity Rowing team. To a rower, these terms give vital directions to keep everyone safe. For example, “heads” is pretty self explanatory - you’re about to get hit by a boat, watch your head.
Honestly, I knew very little about rowing before I joined the varsity women's rowing team. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions. To give a bit of background, my first year at Princeton was characterized as what many people call the typical “BSE grind”. I took difficult STEM courses and found myself heavily involved in my classes and less involved in the Princeton community. I wanted to change that at the start of my sophomore year, and so I took a leap of faith to join a sports team.
You might ask, why rowing? To be honest, I received an email inviting walk-ons to the team and thought , “why not, for the plot right?”. Prior to college I had never rowed before. But, the amazing thing about Princeton is that opportunity is all around. The coach welcomed me and a small group of girls with enthusiasm and began to teach us how to row.
Joining a team has been an interesting experience to say the least. I remember the butterflies in my stomach while walking to practice the first few days. “What have I gotten myself into?”. I was soon swooned by the beauty of the boathouse: old, wooden, and cabin-like. Our boathouse sits right on Carnegie lake, a beautiful, quiet body of water with a toe-path and wooded forests running along it. From the outside, loud EDM music escapes the windows and a bolster of accented comradery fills the rooms from the inside. Walk inside and I’m sure you’ll hear British, Australian, and German accents all around; it’s quite an international crowd, and that was exciting! The boathouse has a lot of team spirit, and I was more than excited to immerse myself into it.
Fitting rowing into my schedule has been a challenge - I won’t lie. It’s about 14 hours of practice a week, roughly 2-3 hours per day. I’ve learned that rowing is not a joke of a sport - it challenges every part of your body. Unfortunately, I recently realized that it might be too much endurance for my body (I was a 100m sprinter in high school, so I should’ve seen this coming).
Because of this, I will be walking off the team this Spring. However, I don’t think that should discredit the beauty of trying something new. College is known as a time to push yourself and get outside of your comfort zone. Although I can admit it was hard and joining the team was not always easy, I learned that some things are worth it, even if they don’t seem worth it in the moment. While I struggled to keep my academics and athletics balanced, I know that I will look back on my college years and be proud that I took a once in a lifetime opportunity to row at Princeton. And further, feel confident in my ability to know when a particular experience isn’t right for me.
With that, I’m grateful for my time with the rowing team and I’m excited to turn the page - looking forward to what Princeton has in store for me next.