On my newfound love of water

Some people are like eel. Or frogs or dolphins or some sort of aquatic creatures. Or mammals because apparently they can swim really well too. Born swimmers. You take them into the water and in two weeks they're taking lengths at a time, standing up on their noses inside water, waving those less fortunate with their feet. Merpeople them. Being in water and swimming comes so naturally to them.

I'm not a natural swimmer. If anything I'm the opposite of that.

I went to a school for ten years where they had mandatory weekly swimming class. You could go again in the weekends from your house, and then once more if you could finagle it through special interest groups or clubs. You had ample sufficient some people might say way too much access to water and the pool. At the minimum, one would expect those who came out of it to be able to swim.

Not so.

I went to swim classes every week...bunked them often or made excuses but mostly got into the water. Never learned to swim. I was too afraid of water. It could choke me mess up my eyes ears brain it's cold it's annoying it causes me trouble breathing. Water is not a natural state of being for humans, we may like to think of ourselves as dolphins or eels or some sort of other mammals, at home in water, but when push comes to shove water is an unreliable friend. One moment you could be having the time of your life, the other one of your muscles gives or you get a terrible headache and bam!

Drown! Dead!

Awful things happen in water.

My college offered swimming courses, I went to the pool a dozen times...maybe more than that, but never actually learned to swim. On family outings back in Nepal we went to resorts with pools, where I got in like everybody else. While my cousins lapped around me I just uhhh played with water, splashed it around made bubbles, sat on it. Had fun. Didn't swim. Couldn't swim. I was trying at this point, in my late teens and early twenties. But I had no good teacher.

This I find interesting. I don't know many people who are so bad at swimming but will still get into water just for the heck of it. Just to splash things around. Last year when we were at the cape, with CC and her friend from NYC, we didn't plan on jumping into the sea since we had no clothes. Folks jumped in anyway. Because they could swim. And they swam. All around up and down. The folks that couldn't swim, sbk pb didn't get in. Because there's no fun in getting wet and not doing that's meant to be done. I didn't think that way. I just went in, got wet had fun, tried to teach myself to swim. Failed again but water was fun.

Couple of trips to the lakes when I was in NH. Never swam. Always went into the water. Unlike everyone else.

Two weeks ago in Philly, when we went for the hike and stopped at the watering hole, SHK was the only one who swam. It didn't matter to me. YP and I went in, into depths that were way too deep for us, because we liked water. It's cool and refreshing it doesn't matter if you're adept at waterbending.

We went swimming earlier today to the mystic lakes. It was my idea. SS (Phd) and JM went in swam around. I was fearful for the first hour or so. Eventually I came to terms with the water, took out my 'skills' aka floating on my back and floating generally. SS taught me a technique, hand movement. I did that. I began to move! I won't claim I know how to swim, but if left in water, I can breathe on the surface and locomote around even though I won't have full control of anything.

I'm excited. Where this newfound love of water came in the past decade I don't know. Water was never my friend. It's grown into me. I've been asking people out on swim hangs lately, considering taking people to swim dates. Why not.

I wasn't a born dolphin, it's not natural to me. What I do enjoy is the feeling of fun when I'm in a manageable body of water. Swimming and interacting with it, the techniques around that, will come to me eventually.