Coatesville native Lauren Wolstenholme lives with Tourette syndrome. While the journey to self-acceptance and love wasn’t easy, she found herself through swimming and is now a junior at the College of New Jersey, writes Aaron Carter for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Wolstenholme, 21, has a neurological disorder that causes “sudden unwanted and uncontrolled rapid and repeated movements or vocal sounds called tics.” Tourette’s is a challenge that most college swimmers don’t face, but that doesn’t stop her.

“I’m me, and I’m not changing,” she said. “It’s a self-acceptance kind of thing where it’s like, ‘I am who I am. And I don’t need to change that for anybody, and it’s fine because I’m awesome.’ Once you get to that level of self-acceptance it can turn into some self-love.”

Wolstenholme started swimming when she was just a toddler; the tics came later in life when she was in middle school. They can be disruptive to one’s own routine, but she found that when focusing on something like swimming, stress and anxiety lessened, which in turn helped quell her tics.

Over the past few years studying at the College of New Jersey, she became one of the hardest workers on the team and had the full support of her coach and teammates from the start. To Wolstenholme, the pool is a safe haven.

“Swimming is just a place where I can let go,” she said. “It’s like the rest of the world doesn’t exist.”

Read more about Lauren Wolstenholme’s battle with Tourette’s and finding solace in swimming at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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