Second Time Around: Jenna Jacoby

Jenna Jacoby @17jenjen26 : Member of Colgate University Women’s Swim Team, 3 year 1st Team All Patriot League

I work in Marketing & Fundraising for Youth For Tomorrow; a nonprofit in the Washington DC area that provides a home as well as education & therapeutic services to children that have experienced extreme trauma & abuse, like survivors of Human Trafficking.

Swimming and I always had a love hate relationship. I love swimming but didn’t love everything that came with it. The water had always been a safe and happy place but after experiencing hazing my freshman year in college I didn’t know if I had the strength to keep swimming. I couldn’t even look at a pool let alone train after the trauma. I knew I wasn’t ready to quit and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let someone else decide when my career would end so I made the choice to transfer schools. Considering the environment was so toxic it, I should have felt relief but instead I felt like a failure. I had put so much pressure on myself to prove that I could perform all I could think was that I didn’t. It didn’t matter that I had gone PR’s in virtually all of my best events that year, I was leaving and even though it was no fault of my own I had to find a way to start all over again.

The second time I somehow found the most amazing group of women that not only helped me find my way back to loving the water but helped me learn to trust people again. The Colgate Women’s Swim Team & a great therapist helped to pull me from the depression and extremely dark place where I found myself stuck. They became the most amazing training partners and friends but most importantly they let me heal on my own time, never pushing me and always there when I needed them most.

Looking back I wouldn’t trade my swimming career or the path it lead me down because even in the darkest times I was learning and growing beyond what swimming laps in a pool could teach me. Yes I learned discipline, hard work, goal setting, etc. but I also learned it is okay to ask for help. I was afraid to admit something was wrong my freshman year and that the situation was out of my control. I’ve since learned that asking for help is not a sign of weakness but strength. My career has been over for five years and I still have a love/hate relationship with swimming but instead of surviving alone I have the most amazing teammates and friends for life.

@colgateswimdive @colgateuniversity @colgateraiders

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