Surprise of the Week

In recent years, I've been yearning to learn how to swim. You may call it a deprived childhood or easy going parents, but complaining about swimming lessons in grade two led my mom to withdrew me from swimming lessons after passing level I.

I never had a fear of water, or so I thought, but little things about public pools did irk me. Bacteria, babies/kids peeing in the pools, the idea of so many bodies sharing one big tub (how could germs not be passed around??) and so on and so forth. But why let my fears stop me?

So finally, I decided that during this 'Golden' year of mine, I had to learn how to swim. I think one major reason I have this urge to become a swimmer was so I could learn to do water sports (ex. scuba dive, long board), and it definitely does not make sense for one to accomplish that without knowing how to swim first.

However, when I finally browsed lessons online and made multiple calls regarding adult classes, I found that the most affordable and practical option for me was filled up quickly. I was put on the first waiting list and never got a call, got put on a second waiting list a couple of weeks ago and was fifth, so I didn't think I would have a chance.

Well, obviously since I'm writing this blog, I miraculously got in! I received a call from an unknown number on Tuesday during work that I was hesitant to pick up, but thank God I did because a spot had opened up for me for the following day. I didn't expect this to happen so even though I took the spot, I wasn't prepared at all to learn to swim as excited as I was to even have a spot. On my break, I bought a swim suit and after work, I researched neccessities for swimming (I honestly haven't been in a pool for so long), got goggles the next day so I don't infect my eyeballs wearing contacts, and drove myself to my first lessons in ages.

Once changed and showered, I enter the pool area to see groups of kids and teens learning to swim. I saw adults in the hot tub, and lineup of parents watching their kids from the viewing area, but where were the adult lessons? I felt out of place (I felt old basically) and then a friendly lady approached me and assumed I was in the same class, and I was. Fast forward and it turns out that I'm the 'youngest adult' in the group, technically I am an adult, but being in a class with parent-age adults made me feel like their child.

Anyhow, I had a great time learning to float, glide, and even attempt some strokes, although I am in need of practice. My swim-mates were friendly and I actually had a lot of fun from learning to blow bubbles to just being in the water.

Best moment of the night: one fellow student, a father-like-age was like " I can't stick my ass up" when learning to back float... I couldn't help but chuckle and laugh on the inside. Our swimming instructor was like, "you mean your butt". HAHAHA

Anyhow, that's my (beginner) swimming story.

Like Dori's mantra from Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."