After my first column, there was a deluge of positive feedbacks from readers all over the country and even abroad.

Some of them were from my former teammates and fellow competitors in various international competitions.

Thank you for all your comments and reactions. You have truly inspired me to share with you more of my life.

Being an athlete changes not only your life, but also the lives of the people around you.

Take for instance my parents: My swim training at the beginning of my career at the age of nine was twice daily workouts at 5 a.m. and at 5 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.

We all had to be there before 5 a.m., otherwise, we would miss the first part of practice because our coach would start at exactly 5 a.m. and not one minute more.

Just imagine my parents waking me at 4 every morning as we all have to prepare food that I have to take to school, my swimming gear and all my school stuff because we have to leave Bacoor, Cavite by 4:30 a.m. to be in Las Pinas before practice starts

I can tell you that my parents did not wake up at 4 a.m.

They woke up even earlier so that they can prepare my food.

The nutritional requirement of a growing swimmer is not the same as any normal nine-year old boy. I had to bring to school two huge bags, one for my school books and the other for food – after-morning practice snack, recess meal, lunch meal, pre-afternoon workout snack and after-training meal.

That’s already a lot of food but it doesn’t include our breakfast and dinner and my Mommy Cecile always made sure everything was all set every single day.

Plus they also had to drive me to practice in the morning and drive me to school after practice. Then, pick me up from school to afternoon practice and after we would all come home together.

Then back to practice at 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

That’s Bacoor to Las Pinas, then to Alabang, then back to Las Pinas, then finally to Bacoor.

On my part, I had to sacrifice time away from my friends in Bacoor and in school.

I hated that very much as I really wanted to play with my friends every chance I got. Many times, while on our way to practice, I would think of what my friends were doing at that moment.

What games were they playing? Who were playing with? Am I the only one who missed out?

To be honest, in the beginning when I was such a weak swimmer, I would sometimes hide at my Lola Ikang’s house hoping against all hope that my Mom and Dad would forget about my schedules so that I could play with my friends.

But sure enough, they would remember and off we went. I would cry, too, because I didn’t want to get beaten again by the girls.

My Lola Ikang would sometimes make excuses for me, like telling my parents to allow me to play instead as I was already in tears then.

Funny thing is even if I was sobbing in the car ride to practice, once I hit the water I would always give my best.

We had this saying as swimmers that the goal was to go ALL OUT. And that’s exactly what I did day in and day out – ALL OUT!

As I improved and began winning races, I slowly realized I could actually be good at this and started to fall in love with the sport of swimming.

Yet again, another sacrifice had to be made. My Daddy Bien seeing me so focused on swimming told me one day when I was 12 that he had one condition for me to comply with or I would have to stop swimming.

His demand: That all my subjects must never go below a grade of 85. That’s another challenge to hurdle on top of everything.

Since I was already in love with swimming, I studied in the car ride from practice to school.

During recess I would do the homework of the first two subjects. At lunch I would hurriedly dine and do my homework from the previous two subjects. Study in the car ride to afternoon practice.

This would allow me to study my last few subjects of the day when I got home at 8 p.m., as I have to sleep by 9: 30 p.m. and repeat the process the next day.

To ensure that I wouldn’t fall asleep, I learned to study standing up because I didn’t want to fall asleep on my books.

I figured no one could fall asleep standing up.

As a result of my unique study style, my determination not to disappoint my parents and my wanting to swim, I was always in the best section from grade school all the way to high school and graduated with honors cum laude in college in the United States.

I proved that being an elite athlete and an A-student at the same time is possible.

I really love swimming and studying at the same time.

But for my love to flourish, it requires one special element – sacrifice.

And that’s what I did to achieve the success I attained.