Seriously, having spent 14 years showering at the Y virtually every day of the year except Christmas, the Y really does feel like home: it’s a safe, warm and welcoming place. My family and friends are here.

Being here makes me feel so alive (I can breathe!) and helps me keep my head screwed on straight. Every morning when I hit the pool, I take a few minutes to clear the clutter in my brain and find my rhythm.

Then I shoot up a prayer thanking God for the gift of life, for the beautiful pool, for the lovely water and the way it makes me feel.

I know that the Y has been the anchor in my efforts to control the one thing I could control in the storm of my chronic, progressive, incurable disease, pulmonary hypertension.

Swimming is my drug of choice. And the Y’s “away” program has enabled me to obtain my daily fix even on the road. My first goal in 1997 was to swim 1000 miles by the year 2000. That set me up for my daily dose of the Y.

When I swam my 5000thmile at the Y last year, after my victory lap, I pushed up my goggles and popped out my earplugs and was surprised and delighted that the song that happened to be playing over the pool’s sound system was “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. He croons, “Oooowe’re halfway there….” My next goal is 10,000 miles by the time I’m 70. And, God-willing, I will swim it triumphantly and thankfully at my dear home Y.

- Carol Mazur