My favourite Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) would probably be Swimming. I’ve been doing the Swimming CCA for around two years now. Even though the training sessions are twice a week – Tuesdays and Fridays – and pretty late (for Black Squad), it’s still really nice to get to dive into the cool, refreshing water. You can let all of your worries wash away after a long day at school. It’s especially great on Fridays because you can end your week with some exercise, and after that hour of swimming, you always feel nice and refreshed and ready for the weekend.

I’ve also realised that swimming has really helped me to get fit. I still remember before I joined swimming, I was very unfit. Soon after I joined, however, my stamina improved dramatically and so did my running and other sports. I was finally fit! Sure, the first few months of swimming training was really tiring, but in the end, I felt it was really worth joining the swim team.

Often, the Black Squad (and sometimes the Red Squad) gets to go to a swim meet. The biggest one is always in January in Nanjing. We usually have five events that we need to swim in on Saturday and four events we need to swim in on Sunday. I like swim meets because I can always see how much I’ve improved, and it’s also fun cheering on the other swimmers. Of course, it’s also a big challenge! The way I think about that is that I’m representing YCIS and I have to try my best to get top 6 (girls) overall at least for one of my events. Or I could get a “heat winner” (first place).

In conclusion, I really enjoy the Swimming CCA and definitely recommend it to people who want to get involved with more sports.

By Bethany, Year 8, YCIS Pudong Secondary.