Livin’ the dream. No matter who you are, it’s safe to say that you’ve had some dream for the future. Senior Montana Heffernan was living his dream, he had the time and the talent to make it a reality, but complications made him stall one foot from the finish line, literally. On Sept. 28, Heffernan committed to swim for Midland University in Fremont,. “I’ve been swimming since I was 8. Since I was little, I was sure that I’d be doing [swim] in college,” he said.

But to make the jump to the next level, college swimming, Heffernan had to be at his best. “Since I was born, I’ve had zero flexibility in half of my foot, the joints in both the left and right feet were messed up, and I couldn’t get full extension in running, swimming, or anything,” said Heffernan. To correct this foot problem, he underwent a surgery that included moving the joints and putting a screw in each foot to hold the joint in place. Theoretically, this should’ve provided him with easier running and swimming, and also correct the problem with his joints. But it didn’t.

The surgery occurred on Aug. 20, meaning Heffernan was still in a boot when he made his commitment. The right foot healed well, giving him the flexibility that he needed, but the left foot did the opposite. “The interesting thing was that it was supposed to heal, but instead it just broke the whole foot down worse and gave me stress fractures all over my feet,” Heffernan said.

The worst thing about this problem may be that swimming makes it worse. “It’s absolutely terrible when I swim, I can hardly swim a whole practice.” Even with the injury and the pain that it brings with it, Heffernan plans to finish up this season. “I’ve only swam four varsity practices this year, but I’m still going to swim the meets and plan to swim at State this year.”

As for the future, Heffernan thinks that Midland might not be part of his plan anymore. “It’s not worth four years of swimming, and then having problems the rest of my life with my feet.”