Swimming and Courage

Today I again rode five miles on my bike. It doesn’t sound much but it is something I can do without much physical effort and this is the second day I have done it. This is good. I really want to get back to how I was before which was enjoying swimming or biking almost every day. I looked back in my activity book and the last time {before yesterday}I posted, was early in May!

Since I started writing about biking, let me now move to swimming {neat segue, huh?} I learned to do the breast stroke when I was a child growing up in England but even then I didn’t like putting my face in the water. In order to pass our {required} swimming classes, we had to demonstrate that we could swim a length. I did it, but I didn’t put my face in the water one time and was highly indignant when I was told to do it again properly. Well, I DID do it, but I remember thinking to myself as I got out that I would never have to put my face in the water again, and, until I was 66, I didn’t.

Last winter, I decided I needed to overcome an old fear, this fear of putting my face in the water, so I signed up for swimming lessons at the Y. Before I handed over my money, I talked to the director of the water programs and was told that I would do better to take the adult beginners’ class even though I could already swim the breast stroke quite competently. I was told also the maximum number of adults in the class was six but it was more usually three to four and that the instructor was experienced AND patient. So, with great trepidation, I signed on the proverbial dotted line and handed over my money.

Now, in case I haven’t mentioned it before, I live in Vermont and we have snow. Lots of snow. In fact, last winter turned out to be the snowiest one for 30 years. The first class meeting was canceled because the Y closed early and everyone went home before an expected storm struck. The second meeting was canceled because the instructor felt the forecast for that evening was too bad {ice on the roads} But, finally, after two weeks of anticipation and of fear, we DID meet and to my pleasure, the class was only me and another woman which was rather like having private lessons for the price of group lessons. The other woman had a bad sinus infection which she never DID shake off so she dropped out and it was just Bill {the instructor} and me.

The lessons were 55 minutes long, and, after demonstrating to Bill that I could indeed do the breast stroke, I spent 35 minutes of that first lesson learning to put my face in the water without panicking. Into the water, blow out, roll my face up, breathe… into the water, blow out, roll my face up, breathe … I felt foolish, but I learned to do it. Then I tried gliding across the pool with my face in the water. At the second lesson I learned to flutter-kick and to get my right shoulder up high out of the water. {Apparently he had nothing but praise for my left shoulder’s movements!} Anyway, to make a long story short, at the end of six lessons, I was swimming. And putting my face in the water without fear!

“Do something that scares you every day.” What I learned from this is that fear can be overcome small step by small step. I only wish I had been more courageous earlier in my life.