Entry #10: The Way I learned to Swim

     Swimming is a fun activity and exercise that anyone can enjoy. But not many people know how to swim, at least, people that I am acquainted with. I am pretty sure people from lands overseas learn to swim at a young age. Regardless, that was not the case for me. Nobody taught me how to swim, I did not practice swimming in shallow waters either, but nevertheless, I learned to how to swim at the age of eleven. It was like magic, I tell you.

    When I was eleven, I lived in an apartment complex, and I became close friends with a few people that were near my age. I was the type that spent all my time outside roaming around the neighborhood of apartment. I pretty much knew the way around like I know the difference between addition and subtraction. There was a public pool near where I lived, and one day, my friends and I decided to go swimming. The pool was a pretty standard pool. Just a giant rectangle that was five feet deep. For me at the age of eleven, five feet was pretty deep. Even on the tips of my toes I could not touch the bottom of the pool in the five feet area. My friends knew how to swim, and I was the only one who didn't. But for some reason, I did not tell them that. I don't know why, but I hid the fact that I could not swim. Suddenly, they came up with the idea of jumping into the five feet area all together, and of course (don't ask me why) I ended up going along with it. Yep, you heard me right. Even though I did not know how to swim, I agreed to jump into the deepest section of the pool along with everyone else. Despite that, I did not feel any panic at all, nor did I feel scared or nervous. I was completely fine, completely calm. The thought that I could potentially drown never even crossed my mind. So, I ended up jumping into the pool. But don't worry, in no instance was CPR needed that day nor was anybody's life in danger. Instead, what happened was this; I drew a deep breath, jumped, and as my head was about to submerge underwater, I closed my eyes. While I was underwater, all of a sudden, without me realizing, my body was moving. I was swimming and I didn't know it until I resurfaced. It was as if the knowledge of swimming rushed into my head from a past life or something. In other words, before I jumped into the pool, I did not know how to swim at all. After I jumped into the pool, swimming became the easiest thing in the world, right after blinking. I told you it was like magic. Thereafter, I would swim at the public pool everyday, because it was so much fun and I enjoyed swimming, a lot. I would even go swim by myself. Now, I am a pretty good swimmer, even if I haven't gone swimming in quite a while.

If you'd like to share, how did you learn to swim? Was it in a bizarre way like me, or did someone mentor you? No worries if you don't know how to swim yet either. But don't go trying what I did in an attempt to learn, that can be dangerous. See you in the next full Moon!