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I am thirteen years old.

I like girls, but they sure haven't noticed me. I'm not athletic, or funny, or handsome. I don't wear fancy, expensive clothes, or have cool toys. I think that being smart is the thing to do, so I spend lots of time reading and hanging out with my friend Dale, or my friend Blake. I don't do much sports because I've never been great at hitting a ball or a puck. My aim is terrible.

I think Mr. Spock from Star Trek is cool, because he is super-strong and in control of his emotions and the situation he's in. He always knows what to say and Captain Kirk is always going to him for stuff. He knows about everything, like he's memorized everything he's ever read. I want to be just like him.

My mom wants me to get into sports, so I'm going to a swim team tryout today. I'm pretty nervous about it. Our neighbors, the Prince family, have a pool and they let me swim there lots. On hot days, I love to go other there. I help out by skimming the leaves off the pool and helping Mrs. Prince take the solar cover off and put it on when it's time to close the pool. I like being in the water, and I can do some stuff like swim underwater the whole way, holding my breath. I'd like to race and I can swim faster than my mom or my little brother (who is a total hockey kid). Chris Prince is eighteen and is a jock and has a really pretty girlfriend. I'd love to have a pretty girlfriend.

Maybe swimming will be my thing. Maybe I could be a swimming jock. We had a big competition in Edmonton this year called the Commonwealth Games. The swim races made a bunch of headlines in The Edmonton Journal. There was this guy from Edmonton who set a world record. He's the fastest guy at that race IN THE WORLD, and he's from Edmonton. Maybe I could do that, too. I saw a picture of him on this poster, and he looks so strong. I'd love to look like that. Maybe swimming can make me strong, too.

If I make the team at the tryouts, I'll get to practice two times a week at the County Pool. Its a great pool they built last year. There are two pools in the building - one for swimming and one for diving. There's a one meter diving board that's easy to jump off of, and a three meter board that is so scary! I can dive off the one meter, but I can only jump off the three meter.

I think being a swimmer would be fun.