Thankfully, the determination part of my brain won out, and I was accepted onto the team. The days went on, rowing on machines stored in a park district building adjacent to a large warehouse with our boats, and on the Chicago River, which is just a 5 minute walk from Lane Tech High School, my High School of choice. We were doing thousands of grueling workouts which I am even scared of to this day. One, seemingly normal day, I biked over to practice, only beginning to imagine what the sadistic minds of our coaches would cook up today. As I locked up my bike and started slowly walking over the boathouse, I saw a mob of my fellow teammates hustling over to the park district building that housed our rowing machines. As they approached, I noticed a blank stare on all of them, akin to a soldier coming back from war, as if they had just heard some terrible news. I stood there and waited for them to come towards me and asked, “What’s up? What's going on?” My question cut through the silence like a knife, but as soon as I said it, silence once again took control as they continued to walk into the building, ignoring my