You know the feeling, whatever your sport happens to be. You are the slowest runner in the group, the weakest server on the court, the one who finishes last and still claps for the winner. It shows up on golf courses, curling sheets, cycling routes, and pickleball courts across this province, carrying the same quiet message: maybe you do not quite belong here.

But belonging matters more than performance.

I know that feeling from the pool deck. I am 60 years old, and at the Kamloops 2026 55+ BC Games this September, I entered nine swim events and came home with one bronze medal in the butterfly. That medal matters, but this matters more: I kept entering.

Some mornings, a small voice tells me I am not good enough to be there, that everyone around me is faster and somehow more deserving of the lane I am standing in. I answer by getting on the blocks anyway. The doubt does not disappear. Showing up simply matters more.

I am the swimmer who arrives smiling, cheers for the person beside me, and pats a competitor on the back after she beats me by a body length. I mean every bit of that encouragement. Still, underneath it, I sometimes feel that small pinch of envy, wanting just once to be the fast one. I have stopped pretending the feeling is not there. Pride and envy can sit side by side. Both can be true.

I remember being the shy one at my first meet, wondering whether I belonged among swimmers who had trained together for years. What changed things was not becoming faster. Someone older, slower, and kinder than I expected walked over and said, “Glad you are here.”

That is the sentence I try to hand back now to every nervous newcomer standing at the edge of a pool, court, trail, rink, or starting line. You do not have to be fast to belong. Someone will make room for you.

The fitness world is beginning to recognize this too. The American College of Sports Medicine has found that programs framed around “active aging” can be more inviting than those labeled “senior fitness.” Words matter because belonging matters. It is part of what keeps people coming back.

Our Zone 8 Thompson-Cariboo swim team stood together for a photograph Gregory Hall sent around afterward. We may not be the fastest people in the pool, but we kept showing up for one another and for whoever stood shyly at the edge of the group.

I came home with one bronze medal and eight races I did not win.

I am not fast. I am still showing up.

So, if you sometimes feel like you suck at the thing you love, welcome. You do not have to be good at this to keep doing it.

Keep showing up.

The rest of us will cheer you on.

Amy Tucker proudly calls herself an “accidental athlete.” As a senior swimmer and long-distance open-water enthusiast, she has represented Team Canada on the Age-Group Triathlon Team for the past three years. Amy is passionate about encouraging others to embrace fitness and wellness at any stage of life, proving it’s never too late to chase new challenges.