Splash! Swimmers diving into the pool after the buzzer rings. Water flying everywhere. Among those swimmers is Jocelyn Martinez. A senior at East Leyden and a determined student with many AP and Honors classes.
Being moved to varsity this year for swimming, Jocelyn says she joined, “because I didn’t know anyone my freshman year because I went to middle school in Chicago, so I knew I wanted to join a sport,” she said, “It was between volleyball or swimming, but I chose swimming because I thought I wouldn’t make the volleyball team
Apart from swimming, she is also a part of multiple clubs. She says, “I do like 5 billion clubs. I’m president of two clubs, the Bible club and of HOSA, which is like the healthcare club. I’m on the math team. I’m in Model UN. I’m in the ecology club. I’m in three honor societies, National Honor Society, World Cup Honor Society, Spanish Honors Society, and I’m in the Honors choir and two extracurricular choirs.”
With such a busy schedule she shares how she maintains all these clubs and sports on top of her academics. “My planner is really crazy. Like, it’s color coded.” She says, “There’s things all over it, but it’s what helps me manage my time. And also, I have a mentor, actually, and we have weekly meetings, and she’s a big support for me.”
With her mentor she learns about what can help her academically and how to keep her week organized. She explains, “Me and my mentor meet each week to discuss all of my plans for the week and how and why each of the activities I am doing benefit my academic success. But beyond that, she sends me an action plan that I have to complete before the next week begins. This is the most crucial part! Because it’s one thing to say you have a plan and another to actually put it into action!”
Not only does she have her mentor as a big supporter, she also finds support in her friends and teammates.
“My favorite teammate is Ali, ” she says, “We met in freshman year and we’ve known each other for a long time. But she’s more than a teammate to me. She’s like my best friend and I feel like she always helps me put my thoughts into words, because I’m a really bad communicator sometimes. So she helps me to put my feelings into words.
She not only has others supporting her but also has learned valuable lessons in her sport. She describes,
“Swimming is a very mental sport. It has taught me that I have to put real effort into things if I want to see good results, challenging me to push myself past any limits I may have subconsciously set for myself.”
Just as she does in the pool, Jocelyn dives head first into everything she does, making sure it is done to her best ability as she grows as not only a swimmer but as a person.
