Growing up I was always the shy child. I was the one who clung to my mother’s leg when it was time to go to school, or who hid in the back when it was time to choose teams in gym class. I never had a sport or a passion that brought out the extrovert in me until I started swimming lessons.
The Beginning: Swimming Lessons
The summer after I turned four my mom enrolled me into lessons at our community pool. I remember holding on to my alligator innertube like it was my lifeline, not ready to jump in without it. Finally, after the second or third lesson, I started to warm up to the idea of swimming and started believing my instructor would catch me when I leaped into the water. A month later, my mom would have to beg me to get out of the pool and eat a snack or apply a second layer of sunscreen.
Wallflower to Social Butterfly
My love of the water never really faded after that. I spent every summer and almost every day at the pool. I felt so happy and proud knowing I conquered the water - I could do anything. I was there so much the lifeguards joked that I should help them clean and cover the pool. I spent so much time with them they felt like my second family. They taught me how to dive, how to beat my freestyle record, even how to excel at the butterfly.
Suddenly, when I returned to school I was no longer the wallflower. I would smile at the thought of learning a new sport and hopefully being great at it as well. I would invite my classmates to come swim with me on the weekend when the weather was still warm so I could show them everything I had learned over the summer. Swimming was, and is still, such an important part of my life. Once I turned 15, I tested to become a lifeguard and worked at that same pool every summer until I graduated high school, and now today I’m working for an amazing swim school.
Swimming became much more than a fun summer activity for me - It became a way to boost my confidence, a way to make friends, a high school summer job, and now a career at SafeSplash Swim School.
