Mackenna Buchanan '18 Recruiting Profile

Since I started diving, high school diving in the fall of 2014 and club diving in the summer of 2016, I have learned many valuable life lessons that I will carry with me through the rest of my high school, college, and adult life, including perseverance, respect, and teamwork. Although all these virtues have been very important to my development as a diver and as a person, the most important lesson I have learned while diving is just how important it is to love what you do. When you love the job you work in, the classes you take in high school, or in this case the sport you play, it is easier to find success. The long hours you must put in working and training to achieve this success are seen less as an obligatory burden and more as time you can spend learning about something you find complete joy in.  Near the end of my gymnastics career, I lost the passion I once had at the beginning, and as a result, I lost my perseverance and my desire to improve. Now, with diving, I simply cannot wait to get to practice and try a new dive or learn how to improve a dive I've been struggling with. I enjoy getting to the pool early and working on a correction my coach gave me the previous practice, or staying a little late in order to really solidify an important change I made during practice that day. I no longer go to practice because I have to, I go to practice because I want to. I found a love in diving that I've never experienced before in any part of my life, and I only hope I can share that love with you and your dive team.