Running underwater: Musings of a swimmer
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August 25, 2010 • Evan Hynes, Scribbler staff
Filed under Sports
Sophomore Scott Dent has spent more than half a year underwater over the past seven years. That is about 5,600 hours. It is an incredible amount of time for someone to be alone with their thoughts. As he dives into the pool, thoughts sift through Dent’s mind. Thoughts on what he should write for the English paper due tomorrow, thoughts of what he could be doing with his friends and thoughts of what will happen to the protagonist in the epic story he creates as he swims.
Dent’s hair should be jet black, but is now a bleached gray, due to the constant attack of the pool’s chlorine. Despite his rather short height, Dent is buff, not football buff, but swim buff. “We don’t do as much weights, because it would make us less streamlined.” This physical aspect is one reason why Dent won’t and can’t stop swimming. “It does keep me in shape,” Dent said, “But it also helps my relationships with people.”
For reasons unknown to everyone, even himself, Dent can’t stop swimming, but one thing that keeps Dent coming back day after day are his friends at Dekalb Aquatics (DAQ). “I have the friends at school, then my friends at swimming too. So it gives me more variety because the kids at school that I usually hang out with are usually kids in my grade. But at swimming, I usually hang out with people in my group, which is a huge difference in age groups,” Dent said. Yet there is another complex force that brings Dent to the pool, something lodged deep in Dent’s consciousness, something he can’t comprehend. “I don’t know how to explain it, I just can’t stop.” Dent said.
Dent has been swimming competitively with DAQ since he was 10. Before he started at DAQ, he swam year round with the Decatur Gators, from age seven to age 10. Dent joined the swim team because his dad swam when he was younger. “It was my dad that pushed me, I was really into it until I joined DAQ. After a year, I had one coach named Joel who was super hard. He almost made me want to quit swimming for a while.” Since then, Dent’s commitment to the sport has progressed. Now he has three-hour practices four days a week, and two-hour practices the other two, with Sunday off.
During all of Dent’s time in the pool, any number of topics have sifted through his mind. Be it mundane homework worries, or the mournful thoughts of what he’s missing, Dent’s mind is constantly tackling these thoughts. One thing that has not left Dent’s inner psyche since 7th grade is the fictitious tale of escape. As Dent’s body mechanically swims back and forth for three hours, his mind is on the run. Every lap he swims, he adds another sentence to the story, every practice; another chapter.
His story begins at one practice, hardly different from any other, when 13-year-old Dent’s mind was preoccupied with a story. One of a young man who tragically dies once the people after him finally catch up. But at this point, this is as deep as Dent cared to delve. In the years since, however, Dent crafted a deep story around that original passing thought. He has thought up and explored the circumstances that lead up to the protagonist’s death, and everything that happened in between. “It’s about this guy who follows this religion, and eventually gets in trouble with the cops,” Dent said, “But as things happen, he gets this huge number of people following him and running with him from the forces against him. Then, he dies.”
After awhile Dent was content with the story he built in his mind, but he wasn’t done yet. Nowadays, as Dent courses through the chlorine-saturated pool, his eyes seemingly thoughtless, his mind lies a thousand miles away. He is probing into the fictitious lives of his protagonist’s followers. “I don’t give them names, I just know the characters,” Dent said, “but the main character is kind of a version of me.” Dent tried to write down and release the story from his mind, into a computer, but things didn’t pan out. “I’ve tried to sit down and write it, but I got bored. I have better things to do,” Dent said.
Even though swimming keeps him from his social life, in the end, Dent loves it for everything it encompasses, especially for the open time for thought. Time that harbors musings that go father and deeper than the expected mindset of speed, technique and the TV schedule for tonight. Time that allows him to craft stories about epic journeys – even if it is just to pass the time.
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