and they just on theard Dr two days after my college graduation last May I was on a vacation with one of my best friends and we were snorkeling in the ocean and seemingly out of nowhere a shark came up and started attacking us and ramming us and bumping us from underneath and we fought back but pretty quickly it had my leg in its mouth and the next thing I knew it had bitten off on my foot and part of my leg we made the Split Second decision to swim for our lives so we swam roughly 75 yards back to the boat in the open ocean water me footless and bleeding profusely and both of us knowing a shark was still circling but swimming definitely saved my life you know I relied on 15 years of competitive swimming to give me any advantage in a situation where I had none fine fine or like that's all initially I realized I was feeling really fearful of the water because at that point the last time I had heard the sound of water I was swimming for my life but it was important for me to fight for the things that I could reclaim um because some of what I lost I'm never getting back and so I wanted to fight for what I could get back and my love of the water was included in that it took a while to get back to that love of the water um but I had glimmers of Hope moments where I felt like I was back to that peaceful and joyful feeling in the water that I've had my whole life and enough glimmers of hope that I relied on hope to keep me going I think that's the beautiful thing about swimming for me and it's been a fight to get that love back but it saved my life in the moment and it's continued to save my life as I work to rebuild it and given me strength and confidence and hope and um it's truly been one of the big things that's carried me through my recovery this year and expedited my recovery in terms of self-acceptance and um my ability to feel strong again