If Ella Detter ’25 could go back in time and tell herself one thing, it would be to accept herself. Two things have helped her build this confidence over time: swimming and coaching young swimmers.
Swimming has allowed Detter to realize her capabilities in moving beyond difficult moments. The intense dynamic—and sometimes, the extremity—of swimming shows her that she can persevere through hard challenges because she’s gone through harder.
“I’ll be taking a really hard math test, or any test, and I realize that I’ve done things way harder than this. Like, this isn’t that big of a deal,” Detter said. “So, I feel like, academically, it’s really helped me realize that this test isn’t the end of the world and that I’m able to do it.”
In addition to learning the importance of grit, Detter has learned how to successfully manage her nerves through swimming.
“I think the best thing is having a routine. I do the same exact thing before I swim every single time, no matter what,” Detter said. “Your routine, I found that it’s the thing you can control. I get really nervous about the race, but the race is something I can’t control. So if I stick to things I can control, then I feel better.”
She’s had a long time to think about this—Detter started swimming before she could even walk and began competitive swimming when she was three. Every summer, Detter finds herself at the swimming pool for 40 hours a week, which only lessens slightly during the school year to 25 or 30 hours—oftentimes, both before and after school.
Serving as a swim coach has also helped Detter step back and overcome her anxieties about the future. “By watching [younger swimmers] grow up, it’s given me perspective that I need to stop worrying about everything,” Detter said.
But, even though swimming takes up most of Detter’s time, swimming isn’t her entire identity. She’s also passionate about improving child illiteracy as a member of the Literacy for All ACE Org.
“All the literacy rate facts that we learned about were so shocking,” Detter said. “I feel like it’s something that more people need to know about.”
But outside of this, she loves the little things in life. She loves the orange, hazy glow of sunrises. She loves watching the streaks of light slowly disappear in sunsets. She loves chatting with friends. She loves how bonded her class is.
“The time that we were in COVID, the way that we all came together during freshman year, the change that we’ve gone through and the fact that we were, for a really long time, the smallest grade just has made us very close,” Detter said.
Detter has been shaped by her multitude of interests and experiences. Whether she’s diving into the pool or advocating for equitable programs and policies to improve child literacy rates, Detter has learned lifelong lessons that will support her in the coming years. She’s found belief in herself, perseverance through hard times, acceptance of what she can control versus what she cannot and appreciation for instances only captured by living in the moment.
