Water baby

I've known how to swim almost as long as I can remember. My parents introduced me to the water at an early age. I remember taking swimming lessons in the shallow end of the pool, clinging to the helper and kicking my legs for all I was worth. We lined up along the rail on the side of the pool, held onto it, kicked and put our faces in the water to blow bubbles. And so we learned to breathe out while swimming instead of holding our breath.

I graduated up through the "middle end" (yes, the middle of the pool was still an end) and "deep end" of the pool as I got older and was so proud when I was deemed good enough to join the swimming club. Joy, at the thought of swimming three times a week. I could barely swim one length of the pool and had to get out and walk back to the start. But soon enough I was swimming back and forth and was promoted up and up. Until I had to join the A club or leave. At this point I was 11 years old and getting too cool for school. I didn't want to have to do the new regime of swimming before school. That sounded like far too much work to my nearly teenage mind. And so I turned to lifesaving, where you only had to train once a week but you did have to swim in clothes and drag people up and down the pool. I liked it, it was fun and although I had to take exams I didn't have to endure the embarrassment of trying to swim butterfly in swimming galas - although never my strongest stroke my swimming coach still insisted on entering me.

Where is all this leading? Nowhere really I suppose. Just that as I swam in the pool yesterday, revelling in the open air, the sunshine, the coolness on my body as I took long strong strokes slicing through the water, I thought about how grateful I was to my parents for introducing me to this joy at an early age. It meant that summers could be spent hopping in and out of the sea or the river (depending on location), never worrying about putting my head under water, no fear of kayaking, wind surfing or scuba diving because I knew I could handle the water. I've always been a water baby and hopefully always will.

Photo credit: weheartit.com