Swimming and being social

Swimming started up for me on Monday so I am back to waking up at 5am. Yes it is early, but I need to remember that swim practice is the one sure way to snap me out a a long running depression. Not only it is because of the hard work...more work then if I was swimming a lone, but it is time with my friends.
Fly Guy for the longest time thought I never spent time with my friends and then he realized that he was looking for me to have the same pattern he has. He gets home from work comes home hangs out with me and helps get the girls to bed and then he goes out to hang out with his friends. It took him awhile to realize, but pattern is to wake up at 5am and get up go to the pool hang out with my friends pre and post workout. We talk about swimming, family, friends, work, school, etc. I have put in a workout and I have been social for the day even before Fly Guy wakes up. So once he realized that he no longer asks me why I don't go out with my friends. He realizes I hang out with my friends three times a week between 5:15am and 7am so I am good. ;-)
I saw this quote in a competitive swimming supply catalog and I had to cut it out because it is really true:
"Try explaining it to a non-swimming and you'd think it was rocket science. They ask you, "How is swimming a team sport? You're out there by yourself, it's all about individuals." But invite them to a practice, if they're willing to get up that early and they;'' see true teamwork. Friends pushing each other. Every practice, every lap, every race. Everything you do, you do it together, as a team. You pace each other. You race each other. It's personal."
I get goosebumps when I read that, because it is so true for me. Swimming helps me on so many different levels that it is hard to explain. Yes there is the obvious..the exercise, but there is the emotional well being part and the social part and it is all something that a non-swimmer doesn't get and I need to remember when I feel myself sliding in to a longer stretch of depression then I feel I can handle.