[stylist] blog

[Ashley Bramlett]

Aine,
I enjoyed this story! Where can I read more of your blogs?
That was a tough decision. You wrote it so we could follow your train of 
thought.
I think you were real mature to think over this and decided to study 
performance.
I believe a BA will serve your future job prospects well.

Good luck with everything.
If you wanted to write more or in another blog I'd like to hear what
the paralympics was like.

Ashley
-----Original Message----- 
From: 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!






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