Imagine me, after all these years learning how to swim? Well, tonite was my first swimming lesson and I have to say, move over Esther Williams.
At first I was terrified to put my head under water without holding my nostrils shut. So the instructor told me I would have to go into the kiddy pool and practice while the others moved ahead with the lessons. I looked around the pool and saw the 12 and 13 year olds on the swim team and imagined what a sight I would be in the kiddie pool. I immediately stuck my head under the water and we proceeded from there.
I cannot believe that I not only put my head under water but I didn’t have nose plugs on. I actually felt so much freedom being able to put my whole head under water and breathe through my mouth. WOW, what exhillaration I felt and no water in my lungs and thank goodness for that one because I learned exactly what can go wrong in Anatomy.
The lifeguards at the pool know me from my daytime walks in the water so tonite, they were all sort of cheering me on everytime I stuck my head down…lol In fact, everytime one of the students did the swim properly, the swim team on the side cheered us on as well.
I swam across the pool with a small boogie board and flippers on. We learned to keep our head down, breathe and kick. We also practiced our strokes outside of the water. Two of the women went down when they let go of their boards in ten feet of water. The lifeguards threw them a tire to catch onto. Now if the teacher had jumped in to help save the person going down, I would have let go of my boogie board and joined them.
I cannot begin to express how proud I am of myself tonite. The feeling of even this minor achievement has me so giddy. I always wanted to learn how to swim but was terrified of putting my head under water and going into the deep end of the pool.
I’m one of those people who will swim across the pool as long as I’m on the side where I can grab the wall and/or keeping my head above water and swimming across gauging to make sure I can make it and not stop.
I think this is going to be one hell of a radical sabbatical year! Making waves has always been my forte but never expected to make them in a pool. Life is just full of surprises!
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