Free Myself and I by Earl Sewell

to do my research, I came across an athlete named Anthony Ervin who was the first swimmer of African descent to win a gold medal in the Olympics, and that had just happened in the year 2000. I decided to YouTube his name to see if it came up, and sure enough it did. I watched Anthony leap off the diving stand and rocket through the water like a missile. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Then I kept searching YouTube and came across a black female swimmer named Maritza Correia. She was the first Hispanic-American woman to make the U.S. Olympic Swim Team. As I began to learn all this, I thought about Maya and wondered if she’d ever heard of this woman. Then I stumbled across a Website that totally blew my mind. The International Swimming Hall of Fame is an organization dedicated to the sport of swimming. A lot of the stuff Grandmother Katie and I had spoken about wasthere, but there was so much more. They even had videos, one of which showed this black girl who worked for the city of Fort Lauderdale Ocean Rescue. This girl’s skills were so awesome that she could even ride a surfboard. She talked about how she loved being a lifeguard because being in the water was a very calming experience. All her friends thought she was crazy and even went as far as to say she wasn’t a real black person because she was on the school swim team. She went on to say how much she loved being a lifeguard because it gave her a sense of control, which is what Maya was trying to explain to me.
    Finally, I saw a video on the Website that had me in tears. Two sisters who reminded me of Grandmother Katie were interviewed about swimming. The younger sister got into swimming in the mid-1990’s as a way to deal with some health issues she was having. She would get up every morning and go swimming. However, the older sister always criticized her younger sibling for getting wet every day and even went as far as to make her feel bad for liking the sport. Eventually, the older sister started to swim and now competes in the sport with other women in her age group. After watching this video and countless others on the Website, I changed my mind. I decided to not allow some lie from slavery, which was supported by segregationists and black folks alike, to keep me from doing something extraordinary for myself.

seven
    After I reconsidered my decision, I called Maya. Her cell phone rang continuously before going to voice mail. I left a high-priority message asking her to return my call because I had something important that I needed to tell her.
    Later on, when I’d finished my homework, I realized that Maya had never returned my phone call, so I gave her another jingle. This time the phone went directly to voice mail, which meant she’d turned her phone off.
    â€œThis is silly,” I said aloud before calling her on her home phone. Her baby sister, Anna, who is a freshman at our high school, answered the phone.
    â€œHello, is Maya there?” I asked impatiently.
    â€œWho is this?” she asked, sounding annoyed.
    â€œKeysha,” I answered.
    â€œOh, I didn’t catch your voice. Why are you calling her on this line?” Anna asked curiously.
    â€œBecause she won’t answer her cell phone. Is she there?I really need to speak to her,” I said, wanting her to get her on the line.
    â€œI have a question. Are all the rumors about you true? Because I’ve heard some pretty wild stuff,” Anna boldly asked.
    â€œNo, and you shouldn’t believe everything you hear around that school,” I said, giving her some of my own personal advice.
    â€œYou don’t have to snap at me about it. I just asked you a simple question.” Anna was the complete opposite of Maya. She was high-spirited, and from what Maya had told me she loved to gossip and act older than she was.
    â€œWould you please put Maya on the phone?” I asked as pleasantly as I could.
    â€œYou can’t talk to her right