As a sportsperson Ellen Keane had done it all but as the curtain came down on her fifth and final Paralympics at the weekend, there was still one dream the Dubliner wanted to sign off with.
She had started her Games journey as a 13-year-old at Beijing 2008, and medals had not eluded her on the grandest of stages, not least the gold from Tokyo 2020 as well as the bronze from Rio 2016.
But the 29-year-old finally got to tick one last box as she fulfilled her wish to be an Irish flagbearer at Sunday's Closing Ceremony alongside para equestrian rider Michael Murphy.
"It was a real emotional way to end my career," says Keane of the emotional scenes at Paris' Stade de France.
"When I got to Paris itself, I kept joking with all my other team-mates about how I wanted the flag. I was going to be like, 'Give me the flag!' to the Chef de Mission who is the person who ultimately decides who the flagbearers are.
"So I found out just a few days before the Closing Ceremony and Neasa (Russell) pulled me into her office and I was like, 'Oh god, am I in trouble?'"
Quite the contrary as Russell informed her that she would jointly have the honour of bringing the tricolour into one of the world's most iconic venues to end her sporting career in style.
"I burst into tears when she asked me because it is a really special moment," Keane adds.
"I've been to five Games and I've never been asked and I've watched my friends, my team-mates getting to carry the flag and to be finally able to do it was really, really special.
"And what made it even better was how great Team Ireland were. When me and Michael were coming out onto the stage, neither of us had any idea where Team Ireland were.
"It had been raining, we didn't know what the mood was like and we got onto the stage following everyone in front of us and all of a sudden we just heard cheers.
"We turned to the side and we just saw Team Ireland going absolutely ballistic in the crowd and we couldn't even make out the green because everyone was wearing ponchos but we knew straight away it was them.
"So we just took a moment to stop and wave the flag at them and we got into a little bit of trouble with that. But we had to take our moment, it was only going to last a few seconds."
That may have been fleeting but Keane's career in the pool has been anything but, competing from the age of 10 when she vividly recalls doing her first anti-doping control to underline the seriousness of her involvement from such an early point in life, before squeezing in five Games from the ages of 13 to 29.
"It's so funny because Allianz actually released a montage of me throughout the cycles and I was having a little bit of a joke with one of the girls who works in Allianz about it (saying), 'You did me dirty' because in 2012 I had a bit of an emo phase and if you look at the video it's like 2008 really cute innocent 13-year-old, 2012 looks like it's my mugshot," she quips.
"I always feel like an end of a Games is a moment for me when I've grown up and I've figured out what's next."
Paris 2024 is a little bit different than the four previous editions for Keane as what's next is, for the first time in her life, not set in stone.
Deciding to retire was an "easy" call to make by her own admission but the nerve-wracking part is finding that next challenge that will match her love for swimming and desire for competition - although she has no intention of rushing into a decision.
"The closer it got to Paris, there were moments when I thought, 'Oh, what will I do next?' And it was those little moments where I'd have the little wobble and I'd be like, 'Panic, what am I going to do next?' But I think I've done a good job at carrying myself over the past few years and cycles that I've got so many skills that I didn't realise I had," she says, also crediting the Sport Ireland Institute for providing opportunities to upskill in areas outside of sport, including having Life Skills specialists in Paris with the Team Ireland members.
"It's only scary at the thought of making the wrong decision. So that's more what I'm being really, really careful and mindful of, just making sure that I'm taking this time that I'm reflecting and I'm really focusing on what's making me happy, what's not making me happy, so that when I do make the decision I'm chasing the next dream rather than settling for trying to make a living.
"I really want to live a life where I'm fulfilled by accomplishing goals and that's how I've grown up. I'm retiring from sport, I'm not retiring from high performance."
Clearly there's no intention of standing still and the sentiment will be similar for Irish swimming after Olympics and Paralympic Games that yielded a host of medals by Róisín Ní Ríain, Mona McSharry and Daniel Wiffen this summer.
Last month, the Government announced a new National Swimming Strategy with €500,000 funding aimed at promoting the sport and encouraging greater participation levels.
Speaking at that launch, Paris gold medal winner Wiffen had voiced his desire to see more 50-metre pools in Ireland.
However, Keane believes the most important priority is having a second 50-metre pool to add to the one in the National Aquatic Centre at the Sport Ireland Campus.
"I don't think it's something that needs to urgently be done," she said of having additional Olympic-sized venues.
"When it comes to the Sports Campus, I think having a second 50-metre pool would make such a difference because it means we would be able to host events.
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"When you are hosting international events, you can only host World events if you have two 50-metre pools so that everyone has access to the swim-down pool while the competition is on.
"So if I was to talk about urgency, that's kind of the only urgency that's needed at the moment I think."
She also adds that 25-metre pools have not been an impediment to the current wave of Irish swimming talent.
"You could look at performances that Ellen Walshe did and that Danielle Hill did and they train in 25-metre pools all the time and they're incredible athletes," Keane says.
"What they did in Paris, they wouldn't have done better if they were training in a 50-metre pool I don't think. Ellen Walshe's turns are incredible because she trains in a 25-metre pool.
"But I think maybe the resources could be given to the clubs and supporting the clubs maybe to make the pools a little bit more updated, (like) more ventilation. I've trained in pools where the mist has come through because the ventilation from the chlorine is not great.
"So I think it would be a really lovely thing for the investment to be made in the clubs and the people, and I don't necessarily think we need more 50-metre pools right now. I think just updating what is already there is a good place to start."
As for the way the Paralympics are promoted globally, Keane touched on the controversy around the Games' official TikTok account in regard to how some videos, accompanied by viral sounds, have ultimately portrayed para athletes in the midst of an apparent attempt to inject a degree of humour.
"The TikTok account is disappointing if I'm honest and it's just a bit like, 'We're going to do anything possible to go viral,'" she says.
"It is disappointing to see that the humour that they use is a bit disrespectful to the performances that the athletes have done.
"I think maybe asking the athletes' permission before doing it would have been nice. I wasn't asked permission for a video of me to be made - my video wasn't even that bad - but I can only assume how other athletes may be feeling.
"We're trying so hard to strive to show how high performance and serious we are as athletes and if we choose to take humour in our disability, that's our choice. It's not a choice that someone else should be making for us.
"So it was quite disappointing that was the route they decided to go down."
Paris 2024 may be the last we see of Keane in elite competition but if there is one legacy she hopes to leave behind, it's the drive for the next generation to stick with sport regardless of the level.
"The self-love from my perspective came from seeing what incredible things that my body could do and I guess the most amazing thing about the 'Stop the drop' campaign is trying to encourage young people to stay involved in sport because that's where you can learn to be a bit more confident and learn to love your body."
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