get up! yes, I'm talkin' to you!

I'd classify part one of my day as lard-ish. This morning I slept in until nine o'clock, even though school started at half past eight. I just didn't feel in a school sort of mood. I missed all of math, which I really didn't have a problem with, and I missed most of AP Lang, including a quiz.
I still have a senior ad burden, and I can't believe that this system we have still doesn't work. Oh well.
But worst of all, we have these groups in my anatomy class and they're called pods. We've been with them since the first day of school. Actually, due to schedule changes I've been with my pod for less. So a few months ago, fate brought 5 random high schoolers together. And now we're like best friends.
And this is when the happy story takes a wrong turn down Sad Street. Our teacher is breaking up our pods. All of our happy days of talking, sometimes about anatomy, sometimes about other things, like how great Italian food is and how sometimes people put pretty stupid questions on Yahoo Answers. All over. After next Friday, pod 2 will be kaput. Which is really depressing.
So after another somewhat angsty day (don't go reaching for the dictionnaires, I know it's not a word; however, my AP Lang teacher who is a DOCTOR made it up. You can do stuff like that when you're a doctor.), I came home, still sick from my whatever it is, and tried to finish my work. I had a somewhat loss of purpose, a "what am I doing this for?" sort of attitude. At least I had a warm brownie :)
I still feel cold-y, and so I wasn't going to go to swim practice. Because the last thing most people want to do when they are sick is go into a cold pool. At least that's me.
But I went anyway, hoping I could gain something from it to put in this post, or else it would just be a rambling rant, kind of like last night.
But once I got in the water, I felt like all of my weight was gone and that I was floating through air. I've never felt that way when I swim. But I swam a whole eight laps at around a full sprint and it felt great. I forgot I was sick. I just flew through the water and glided past everyone else in my lane. Happy music was playing in my head. I felt completely invincible.
We did a bunch of hard sets tonight. Well they really weren't hard, the intervals were just a little rough. Ten 50m catch up sprints and then twenty 50m sprints on tight intervals. But each time I went I felt amazing. I led the lane and ended first in each one. My arms cut through the water with precision and force and the water rushed off my shoulders and back as I whipped around the wall to go back. When I pushed off the wall underwater I straightened my body so well I wish I could have seen it. It was a mental cleansing in a physical way. A meditation while you are moving.
I can't even duplicate the feeling. It's like you are a superhuman with amazing powers and it didn't feel like I was trying. My lungs felt gigantic and almost like I didn't need to breathe. But I did, just so my little dreamland adventure wouldn't end with me drowning.
I've heard that exercise is really good for not only your physical health but your mental health. Lots of times people who are sedentary get depressed. And lots of times disorders like insomnia, depression, and the like are caused in part by lack of exercise. Exercise makes people feel happy because the activity releases endorphins, which make you happy. It also increases your body temperature and gets your blood flowing. One reason why I feel a lot better and less sick. It also gives you a chance to make you feel good about yourself.
Next time you have a pretty bad day, exercise! You may have to drag yourself to do it, or have your friend drag you to do it, but once you're done it feels amazing. And it's addictively fun (I know that's not a word..can't think of a better one). Instead of trying to ease your stresses and calm your mind with chemicals and other unnatural things, trying getting up and moving. You don't have to be the Michael Phelps swimmer, but even just randomly running around your house can make you feel better.
I love swimming :)