[stylist] blog

[Donna Hill]

Hi Aine,
Now I know a lot more about you. Thanks for sharing this. It's well written,
and not surprisingly impressed  everyone.

I noticed something in this that I noticed but didn't mention in your
earlier piece. It could be how things copy to e-mails, because I admittedly
did not look at the attachment, but you seem to use two spaces after each
sentence. This is how I was taught, but it has fallen out of favor. If you
submit material to publications, using the double space is considered
nonprofessional. You can use Word's Find and replace dialog to get rid of
the extras. Making sure there's nothing in either field, put two spaces in
the Find field and one in the Replace field and enter on Replace all. This
also catches any inadvertent third spaces.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Aine
Kelly-Costello
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 11:28 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] blog

While I'm at it, in case anyone's interested I thought I would also send
along a sample blog I wrote with the aim of being selected to be able to
blog as a first year university student this year (I'm very happy to be able
to say I was selected).  It deals with a crucial decision I had to make last
year and is below and attached ...



TO SWIM, OR NOT TO SWIM ...
That is the Question


It was June 2012, when it really hit me that DECISION Time was approaching
...  And fast.  Toooo fast.  So what, you might ask, did I have to decide?
First, I'll explain the situation.  In April, I'd trialed for the Paralympic
games in my sport of swimming, and theoretically, I'd qualified.  However, I
was one of the slower swimmers from New Zealand, and, essentially, there was
no guarantee I'd actually be going to London.  And in June, after being
asked whether I knew if I was going to London yet by at least one person
every day for the last two weeks straight, the wait was really beginning to
get to me.  What made things worse was the knowledge that if I didn't get to
go to London, I'd still have to go to the Paralympics Swim Camp with
everyone else who WAS going to the games-talk about putting salt in an open
wound..

It was on one of these days of brooding I realized that, regardless of
whether I went to London or not, the major decision as to whether I'd keep
swimming competitively after 2012 could only be put off for so long.  By
this point, I'd already sussed out a few things ...

If I didn't keep swimming, then:
a) I would study Classical Flute Performance (in a Bachelor of
Music) with a BA conjoint at Auckland Uni
b) I would like to stay in a hall of residence (to get the full Uni life
experience and all that)
c) I'd need to find another way to get fit (either a club at Uni or the Rec
Centre, which looks doable, at any rate)

On the other hand, if I did keep swimming:
a) I'd probably do a part-time BA
b) I would definitely be staying at home (because I swim with North Shore
swimming and would definitely not be prepared to change coaches)
c) I'd be spending a good 14, 15 hours at the pool each week, another 3 or
so doing land training, and another 6 odd preparing and commuting-in short,
devoting about 24 hours per week to swimming


As I'd thought about the choice more and more (OK, what I was actually doing
was putting off deciding for as long as possible), I'd come to realize that
there were three major factors in the decision-making.  One of them was use
of energy.  I had to face the facts: swimming was energy zapping.  No.
Extreeeemely energy zapping.  Let's just say me and 4:30 starts have never
got on well and leave it there.  But on the other side of the coin, that
energy was going towards getting faster and fitter.  If I kept swimming
after London, medals at the Río games were a very real possibility (notice
the plural?).  I'd also undoubtedly grow a lot as a sportsperson and get to
do much, much more travelling for competitions (which is pretty cool,
really).

Factor number two was independence.  If I persevered with the sport, I
wasn't going to get a lot of that, as I'd still be living at home and would
basically have my days all planned out, between training and part-time
study.  Living in the halls at UoA would give me a chance to work on my
orientation skills (you might've been wondering what my "disability" is by
now-I'm totally blind), it'd also let me make new friends, but most of all
it'd be a chance to gain some long-awaited freedom! Although if I did want
to ever really show what I was made of at a Paralympics, then now,
undoubtedly, would be the time to do so.  
So said freedom, could, theoretically, wait four more years (my family have
been very supportive).

The final factor was studying Music.  Or rather, WHEN, exactly, to start
studying music at university.  For about as long as I can remember, I have
had my heart set on going to a university and doing a performance degree (it
took me a little longer to decide on an instrument, but performance, I knew,
was what I really wanted to do).  If I kept swimming, I was very limited in
that respect.  Even joining orchestras and choirs was tricky because it had
to fit around training.  Studying a full-time BMus was out of the question.
The other problem was that if I wanted to forge a great career in music,
leaving off studying it for four years would mean I would fall a good way
behind my peers (many of whom I know well and would love to study alongside)
and catching up would probably be almost impossible.

Once I eventually got my thoughts organized as such, it wasn't too hard to
see which option was winning.  It finally dawned on me that what was missing
on the swimming side of the equation was real passion.  Sure, training was
quite often fun, and sure, pushing yourself to new heights and winning
medals and travelling was great, but I just didn't have the same motivation
for that as I do for flute-playing.  The non-swimming route certainly
presents its fair share of challenges too.  The main ones, I think, will be
needing to be my own advocate at University, and making sure I take
advantage of as many opportunities to learn as possible.  Then there are the
little ones, like not accidentally stealing someone's laundry because they
have the same type of socks as you, and noticing the dog poo on your shoe
before walking it all over the building.  But those challenges excite me.
Even the stupid little ones in their own way ...  They're all part of the
university adventure!

So here I sit writing this blog, accepted into a BMus/BA conjoint at UoA and
already enrolled for 2013 (I figure I may as well start off organized!).
But I had the best of both worlds really, because I did, thankfully, end up
getting selected for the London Paralympics, and came back with many way
cool memories and experiences (the describing of which would be a whole
other blog or three ...') Till next time!