During my freshman year, when my roommate told me she was joining the rowing team, I was beyond baffled. In my mind, college was a time to finally slow down. I was so ready to give up all the hustle of high school extracurriculars, exhausted by the dance I did trying to convince colleges that I was interesting enough to admit. I could not imagine balancing the academics that I thought would be so scary with the intensity of 5:00 a.m. practices six days a week. Luckily, I am the world’s heaviest sleeper, so even though I thought it was wild, it was no big deal for her to clamber down our bunk bed before the sun rose every morning. As time went on, I would come to see why she, and so many other important people in my life, came to love such a demanding sport.
My boyfriend joined the rowing team freshman year as well and has always been dedicated, even becoming one of the captains this year. To be candid, there were moments I found it incredibly irritating. We could not hang out after 8:30 p.m. most evenings, and a surprise October break trip meant our own senior year travel plans were canceled. I cannot even begin to count how many times we moved or canceled dates, and, of course, he spent most Saturdays after spring break at regattas, unable to bask in the finally warm weather with me. Still, he and many of my friends love to row. So, rather than sit in this annoyance at their limited schedules, I brought a car to campus sophomore year and decided to see what it was that kept them coming to each race, despite all the craziness that it added to their academic and personal lives.
I will never forget the first regatta I spectated. It was so much more exciting than I realized. There is no rowing like this in Idaho, where the rivers are mostly whitewater, so my only experience with it up to that point was from watching “The Social Network.” Watching not just the Vassar boats—though I cheered loudest for them—but everyone competing on the regatta days captivated me. The races are so short, but the preparation for them is so intense. It is truly incredible to see the few minutes that represent a culmination of months of aggressive training.
My boyfriend, Patrick Horiszny ’26 shared a similar sentiment with me from a competitor and captain’s perspective. “I participated in sports my whole life leading up to college, which I think is what drew me to rowing (even though I was convinced at the time that I needed a break from being part of any sort of team), but rowing is very different from everything else I’ve participated in. The training to competing ratio is very different. Races are pretty much a few minutes long, and we have under 10 a year, so you’re not getting that immediate competitive feedback, I guess. You have to keep yourself locked in to a much greater level”. He continued, expanding on the level of commitment rowing requires. “College athletics in general require a much greater level of responsibility, and rowing as a sport does as well. Being a valuable teammate is not just rowing well and powerfully, but showing up on time (and of course going to bed very early), learning to take care of the equipment, and consistently looking for ways to help your coaches and teammates. Obviously these things are true in other sports, but I personally learned them to a greater degree through rowing.”
This commitment to regular preparation for a very brief payoff has always seemed almost meditative to me. I have become intimately familiar with the constant cycle of early to bed, early to rise, training, back pain, blisters and deep exhaustion that come with rowing. The opportunity to bear witness to that dedication has taught me the value of slowing down and waiting for good things to come. The whole point of rowing, and, it seems to me, life, is the journey. I know this sounds corny, but there is no better example in my mind of putting work into something and waiting for the payoff to come much later. Through watching the rowing teams’ dedication to this principle, I found myself becoming much more comfortable with a slow, steady march towards success. This conception of what dedication looks like is what ultimately powered me through writing a thesis, applying for jobs and everything else that has been worth doing.
I never thought I would be someone who would spectate sports in college. I still get many funny looks and laughs when I say that I am driving nearly four hours on a Saturday to watch a few minutes of college rowing. Sometimes I laugh at myself when I realize you can just barely see the team from far away at the very end of the race. Still, when I drive home, I always find myself thinking, “Wow, they really care about that sport.” I think that must count for something. Maybe that slow dedication counts for everything.
Well done !!