Back when I was nine years old, I went to a sleep away camp in North Carolina called Camp Seagull. Water sports, sailing and motor boating were about as popular as all of the land sports. Everyone had to take the swim test within the first couple of days when arriving at camp. I had taken the fairly easy test the past three summers and I passed even though swimming was not my favorite activity. I loved to drive motor boats at the time and that meant I had to take a long swim test to gain the ability to take out a motor boat by myself. I hated the lake since I did not like it when a fish, turtle or some other scary creature grazed me under the surface. It was a hot, sunny afternoon when I hopped into the lake to take the dreadful, forty lengths swim test. One of the swimming counselors, Jake, counted the number of laps I swam and supervised me during the test. The first fifteen lengths flew by and I thought it was going to be easy the rest of the way. I was wrong as I became fatigued and switched to side stroke with the intention of conserving my energy since it did not have to be completed in a finite amount of time. Time slowly passed and I was on my twenty fourth length when suddenly clouds started to roll in. I did not want to be in the lake if it started raining so I attempted to speed up but cramps ensued so I slowed back down. I was feeling confident by my thirtieth length thinking to myself, only ten more to go. On the thirty sixth length, there was a clap of thunder in the distance and Jake hollered for me to get out of the water. I was sure they were going to count it because I was so close to finishing but the lightning stopped me. I was wrong which infuriated me because I had done so much work for nothing and I hated Jake for the rest of the summer. I took the test again a couple days later and it was cloudy once again but I passed it and was relieved that there had not been lightning which would have ended my test.
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