I've been on the crew team at Georgia Tech for about five months.

First, I would like to say that it's probably been one of the best decisions I've made and ever will make. I tell you, rowing requires about the same mental and physical discipline as like, kung fu.

I also will tell you that the process has been really quite painful. The rowing machine we exercise on when we're not on the river, aka the ergometer, aka the erg, aka the torture machine, is a bit of a monster. Since we haven't been on the river since it's been too cold and dark, every day I wake up and I look forward to a new, strangely-awesome, strangely-cruel workout on the erg.

Erging, at least for me, gets painful about a minute into it. Pieces are around thirty minutes, and sometimes times two. So, about a minute into it, my brain starts sending distress signals to my body, screaming, "Stop! Stop that! It hurts!"And then for the next twenty-nine, I go into battle mode, of which I wage a war against my body.

There's a threshold of pain I like to call "the line."

This isn't the threshold of pain as in, where it begins to hurt. It's where it begins to hurt like hell . So far, it seems like "the line" is what you need to cross in order to actually get stronger. For about the entire five months I've been rowing, I haven't been able to maintain the pain past "the line," but so far it's been getting better. Only last week was I able to maintain the pain past "the line" for the entire piece.

I vow to maintain the pain past "the line" now for the entire piece. I've made that decision.