Conquering My Fear of Swimming

Learning something new can be a scary experience. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was learn how to swim. I was always afraid of the water, but I decided that swimming was an important skill that I should learn. I also thought it would be good exercise and help me to become physically stronger. What I did not realize was that learning to swim would also make me a more confident person. This later on would be a great benefit to me in anything new I would try to do and make any new experience less stressful and scary. New situations always make me a bit nervous, and my first swimming lesson was no exception. After I changed into my bathing suit in the locker room, I stood timidly by the side of the pool waiting for the teacher and other students to show up. After a couple of minutes the teacher came over. She smiled and introduced herself, and two more students joined us. Although they were both older than me, they did not seem to be embarrassed about not knowing how to swim as I would have been in their situation.

Once we had introduced ourselves to one another we got into the pool, and the teacher had us put on brightly colored water wings to help us stay afloat. One of the other students, Lisa if I remember correctly, had already taken the beginning class once before, so she took a kickboard and went splashing off by herself. The other student, Tim if I remember correctly, and I were told to hold on to the side of the pool and shown how to kick for the breaststroke. One by one, the teacher had us hold on to a kickboard while she pulled it through the water and we kicked. Pretty soon Tim was off doing this by himself, traveling at a fast clip across the short end of the pool. Things were not quite that easy for me, as this was the first time I had tried to learn how to swim; but the teacher was very patient with me. After a few more weeks, when I seemed to have caught on with my legs, which were the hardest part of learning to swim; she taught me the arm strokes.

Now I had two things to concentrate on, my arms and legs. I felt hopelessly uncoordinated trying to do use both of them to swim. Sooner than I imagined, however, things began to feel “right” and I was able to swim! Yes, it took longer than the rest of the students, but all the hard work paid off. It was a wonderful free feeling – like flying, maybe – to be to shoot across the water. Learning to swim was not easy for me, but in the end my persistence paid off. Not only did I learn how to swim and to conquer my fear of the water, but I also learned something about learning. Now when I am faced with a new situation I am not as nervous as I would have been in the past. I may feel uncomfortable to begin with, but I know that as I practice being in that situation and as my skills got better, I will feel more and more comfortable. It is a wonderful, free feeling when you have achieved a goal you have set for yourself.