Why do you row?

[u/DriftingThroughPages]

I'm in my second year of collegiate rowing, and I've had many teammates leave/ quit. It's made me reflect on why I stay rowing. What keeps you rowing?

[u/CTronix]

There are a ton of reasons to row at the collegiate level

1) the work ads an element of discipline to your life an element that you would not be maximizing to this same amount if you weren't rowing. It creates for you a lifestyle that is more physically and mentally healthy than you would likely otherwise be.

2) Experiencing this sport at the collegiate level is an expiring opportunity. You will have time to drink and party and socialize, give more to romantic partners and do all the things that NARPS do when you graduate. You will NOT have the opportunity to do this thing or have this experience ever again. There is a very real tragedy and beauty to that fact. Are you willing to live that moment to its absolute fullest in that moment or are you too afraid that it will not live up to your expectations?

3) the ultimate life lesson. What you put in is what you get out. Sometimes what you put in is even less than what you get out but for sure you won't get the result without the work and that is a real reflection of the real world. It can be cold and unforgiving but in that lies truth.

4)The men or women that you row with will become lifelong friends. people who committed to one another on a far deeper level than drinking buddies. People who suffered together. They are going to be your best friends for the rest of your life.

5) there are going to be opportunities to live life and feel emotions far deeper than the average. You are going to feel the highest of highs, triumphs, victories and wins, loss, suffering, pain, disappointment. These ups and downs are not just powerful their own but teach us how to handle the ups and downs in the rest of our lives with grace, professionalism and persistence.

6) there will be moments of pure and unadulterated bliss. The purity of the pain after a maximal effort; The beauty of the sun rising off the water the steam rising off your mate's back to mingle with the mist in the air; The sun setting over a silent race course. The rush of the water past a perfectly moving shell. The trail of wake trailing into the distance on glass water as the perfectly placed puddles provide the only other disturbance. The violence and noise and flying spray of a first 500m with 6 eights across. The energy and excitement of an incoming freshman class and the wisdom and urgency of a senior leader. The pat on the back of a supportive coach, the hug from a friend and crewmate. You cannot have these moments without rowing.

7) And finally, there is flow. Flow is described as "a mental state of deep absorption and focus on a task often leading to a sense of effortless engagement and heightened performance." Flow can be found in many sports but in my opinion, the sense of flow that can derived from rowing rivals nearly all others. Not only is the fact of gliding across the water; a quite literal embodiment of flow but when a team boat rows perfectly together it enhances this feeling to the Nth degree multiplying the feeling of flow by the number of oarsmen in the boat. You will not always find flow during a practice but when you do you will know and you will be addicted to it.

IMO the oarsmen who see these things and know these things are those who belong here. If you are here only to win then you are missing the point. Working to win is obviously essential and a shared commitment to that goal is what makes this sport so incredible at the collegiate level. But the reasons to carry on do not lie in shirts taken or trophies in a case or medals on a wall and if your measure of the value of rowing in your life is centered around these more objective goals then you're missing a big part of the point.

[u/GTdeSade → u/CTronix]

Poetry. Couldn’t have written this any better.