More than Just a Swimmer
By Joshua Wong a, Staff Writer
For the past 8 years, senior Diana Wang has had a passion for swimming, and in the process is making it a way of life. Following in the footsteps of her older brother Raymond Wang, who was a former all-city swimmer at Galileo, she was encouraged and pushed hard to become a good swimmer by her parents. For Diana swimming has given her an opportunity to learn teamwork as well as being able to use her skills to help others.
Diana’s love for swimming began at 10 years old when she started taking lessons at Rossi Pool and joined the Rossi swim team, and now is swimming for Galileo’s varsity swimming team. During her sophomore year she joined Galileo’s JV swimming team, and moved up to the varsity swim team in her junior year where she continues this year. She says, “I love swimming because it keeps me active and in shape.”
Diana wanted to join the swim team during her freshmen year, but thought that swimming would overlap with her school time, so she had to postpone it for a year. During her sophomore year in trials, she had to place in top 6 out of all the high schools in San Francisco, she placed 5th and moved onto the championship round where unfortunately she did not place. This year, she is determined this season to make all city and to win an award.
Swimming has motivated Diana beyond competing, using her expertise to become a life guard. When she is not competing at school, for the last year and a half she has worked at (JCCSF) Jewish Community Center of San Francisco as a life guard. During her time as a life guard she has learned to be more responsible, making sure that everyone in the pool is safe and that no one gets hurt. She hopes that she can use these experiences to her advantage in the future. She states, “I decided to become a lifeguard because I wanted to use all those years of swimming to come to use for something and that benefit became my current part time job.”
Many of her teammates see the passion and the work Diana has done. Senior Stephanie Chan states, “Diana shows a lot of encouragement towards her teammates and is a good leader. Aside from being my teammate she is also my best friend.” Senior Timothy To adds, “Diana encourages her teammates every day.” Between school and working as a life guard, there is a lot of stress that Diana deals with, but she can always count on the pool to make her relaxed. She states, “I feel pretty stressed out on the weekends from work, but going to swim practice releases the stress.”
In the future, Diana plans to pursue her passion. “I only plan on swimming after high school during my spare time and to working out,” she says.
“I decided to become a lifeguard because I wanted to use all those years of swimming to come to use for something and that benefit became my current part time job.”
- Diana Wang, senior
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