Karyn Henderson

Past Entries

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February 8, 2005

We started off the week a little tired after just having the meet against Georgia Tech on Sunday. With everybody in the respective groups (UAA, Emory Invite and Non-Taper) things seemed a little hectic.

Everybody got out of practice at different times and our cohesiveness seemed to have dissipated a little. To help our team feel unified during taper, it's a tradition that each class comes up with a gift to present the whole team before practice.

Last week it was my class's turn (the junior class). We had decided to make these awfully gaudy, yet adorable, bracelets out of random blue, yellow and white beads. Additionally, we made sugar cookies with everybody's name on them. The yummy cookies made our tummies happy while the matching bracelets hopefully helped the team to feel more unified as we head into the most important part of our season.

In addition to class gifts, we also follow the tradition of having a "secret psyche." Each person randomly picks another person on the team and gives them little gifts every so often in hopes of helping them get excited for their big meet.

For example, today I received a sign with a picture of Martha Stewart on it which read, "Fast Swimming: It's a Good Thing" and the latest copy of "Martha Stewart Living." Now, I absolutely adore Martha, despite her recent troubles, so naturally I was very excited to receive her, oh so, educational magazine.

Both of these Emory traditions really help get the team excited for the end of the season. Hopefully this week when we head to Chicago for UAAs, our excitement will translate into fast swimming!

Karyn Henderson is a junior from Solon, Ohio. She would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.