As a result of many dedicated years and numerous feats that will never fail to impress me, my boyfriend was granted the experience of swimming at the D1 level, ultimately choosing to do that here at St. Bonaventure. So not only am I lucky enough to go to the same school as my boyfriend, but I am also what one could consider a “D1 girlfriend.”
Overall we have a very fortunate and somewhat unique relationship dynamic.
Watching my actual best friend in life do what he loves (and do pretty darn good too), makes me so happy. I am blessed to have the ability to be so close and get to spectate so frequently, whether it is here, paying $10 for a low-quality live stream, or going on adventures with my best girlies to universities two hours away. Watching these meets is a huge part of our relationship, because no matter the outcome of a race we ultimately come out of it closer than before. Watching swim is way more fun than you might think by the way; check it out sometime.
In preparations for these weekly meets, I can expect that he will be in practice at least 2 times a day, with a lift thrown in there every few days as well. Put this on top of our classes, and my individual extracurriculars, and our schedules can become very overlapped, restricting the time we get to see each other. Although difficult, it makes the time we spend together so much better. I know I am fortunate that I even get five minutes with him, as I watch many of my friends do long distance, and also have valued so strongly the fact that someone in my life is so important to me that even five minutes means the world.
On top of these busy, strenuous days, we can sometimes come together at night with numerous stressors, different sorts of exhaustion, and plenty of negative feelings. This is sometimes difficult because there are days when the only time we see each other we are just so dead, which can make it hard to give our 100% during our time together. I sometimes feel sad the next day knowing that the only time we were together, the mood was just so dreary.
However, this ultimately makes us much stronger, and has made us so much better at keeping positive when we are feeling our lowest. We intent-fully switch to a more positive mindset so our limited time together can be more pleasant. Most of the time we are just so happy to be together that it feels as though it fully erases all of the problems that are ailing us. It also proves our relational strength in that when one of us truly cannot give 100, the other will make up for it. We always say “It’s not always 50/50, it can be 20/80, 40/60…” and so on. It is incredibly rewarding since we know we have each other, no matter how hard things can be.
Being part of a D1 team, there is a huge importance directed towards time spent with the team. This has been awesome for me as a girlfriend, because not only have I gotten to see him make so many valuable friendships, I have been welcomed as well and ultimately made a lot of friends myself. Knowing someone you care about so much has such fun, kind, amazing down-to-earth people in their life is super comforting. I have had so much fun getting to know some of the amazing girls on the team, and have even been called an “honorary member” of the team by some of our closest shared friends.
Being an athlete myself throughout high school, I understand how much of a big deal going D1 can be, so not only am I awestruck that my own boyfriend himself is a D1 athlete, but I also feel kinda cool. I love being like “Yeah he’s a D1 swimmer…” or “Yeah he swims here..” when talking about him with other people. He gets to live his dream, and I get to flex.
Overall, I exude an incredible amount of pride. My favorite person on the planet is living his biggest dream, chasing so many goals, and all in all bringing me along on many adventures related to it. I get to be a cheerleader, support system, a safe space to go for a break, and sometimes even somewhat of an athletic trainer begging him to get his physical ailments investigated.
Although there are plenty amounts of our relationship that are not related to his life as an athlete, it is such a huge part of it. I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Go Bonnies!