An excerpt from the NY Times -
She Wants to Row to Get From N.Y.C. Into College
That goal, Sebastiana Lopez says, is worth the grind of six days a week leading her crew team. “I know this will help me get there.”
By Juliet Macur
Rainy-day practices are the worst, especially in the cold. As she leads her rowing team, Sebastiana Lopez feels the rain pelting her face, soaking her clothes and working its way into her bones. Her fingers go numb.
Yet Lopez, 17, a high school senior, calls this the best thing she has ever done for herself.
As an eighth grader, she had signed up for this test of toughness at Row New York, a nonprofit that teaches city students how to row and gives them academic support and college counseling. Now, more than four years later, her routine includes pushing through her grueling sport’s trying moments.
“I can handle the hard days,” Lopez said. “I make myself do it because I really want to go to college and I know this will help me get there.”
She tries not to cry, but fails, and says, “I do want a better life for my family.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/sports/she-wants-to-row-to-get-from-nyc-into-college.html
