Long Journey of Learning to Swim

When I was in Elemetary School, just like other parents, my parents enrolled me in swimming class. Coincidentally, my mother’s friend’s husband was the national swimming team trainer. So, my first experience with water was actually with the national swim team and their trainer.. There was one girl who used to be very talkative and active. She was one of the youngest in the team, but she has been one of the most succesful. I think she has also represented Indonesia in regional/international races.

Unfortunately, getting the flu, school homework and other exciting activities on Sundays caused me to miss many of the swimming sessions, and finally, my parents decided to call it off. I was nowhere near ‘able to swim’ when this happened, but since it wasn’t a curriculum at school, I didn’t feel any need to pursue it with any determination.

An unfortunate even also discourage me a little. Our second cousins had just had a swimming pool made in their house. As they were in the same age group with us, they invited us to stay overnight and swim there. After an hour or so, I was a little tired already but still excited to swim around. When I was swimming, I didn’t realise that the incoming water (from the water-circulation pipe) was pushing me to the deep side. I panicked and almost drowned. Fortunately, one of my cousins, saw me at the right time (right before I fainted after swallowing water repeatedly) and pulled me out of the pool. I was so scared and embarrassed after that.

I finally grew out of my fear and started to feel the need to be able to swim was when I started going in High School. Many of my friends took swimming lesson with our Physical Education (PE) teacher for an additional PE credit. However, I was already busy with my English course which were 2-3 sessions a week. For my parents at that time, English was a much higher priority for their kids.

A little background.. Neither my parent can swim and so far they haven’t felt the need to. However, English has been a disadvantage that they have been regretting all their lives. They believe that had they been more familiar with English and more fluent in using it, they could’ve achieved more in their careers. That was the reason why my parents didn’t really mind us skipping swimming lessons or even quitting it if it didn’t fit in our schedule, but they wouldn’t let us miss our English course, even during our school exam period. They truly believed that if we are fluent in English, we would be able to catch up with any kind of advancement in the world, including our formal education.

I believed the same thing until I finished my Junior High School, although I had to find a ‘smart’ way to keep my marks in PE high enough for a pass without going to the extra swimming lessons. However, I started to feel differently when I started Senior High School.

Around that time, going to swimming pools with friends, especially on Saturday mornings and having breakfast together was kind of the ‘trend’. Consequently, my friends asked me to go with them. That was when the challenge started for me.. I felt that I was faced with 2 choices, either to confess that I couldn’t swim, or always try to find an excuse to avoid anyone finding out that I couldn’t swim!

After considering for a while, I decided that I wanted to be able to swim. That meant that I must let my friends know that I couldn’t swim and ask them if they didn’t mind if I come and learn at the same time.

I was really surprised and grateful with the responses I received. They seriously offered to teach me! None of them laughed at me! WOW! To this day, I still remember how my four friends, Erika, Frilly, Tia and Diana stood in the pool right where the line bordering the shallow and the deep sides was, with their arms stretched, forming a line, so that I could practice swimming without the fear of heading to the deep side by accident.

After a few times, I finally gained more confidence and I could swim with only one of friends following behind or beside me while I try to reach the deep side. A few more times after that, I could swim by my self from one side, with one of my friends waiting on the other just for my feeling of security.

This went on for almost 6 months on-and-off, depending on how busy we were at school but, I was very happy with my progress. Unfortunately, with end of year exam and preparation for university entrance exams, during the final year of high school, I could only go swimming once in a while. I wasn’t feeling confident about going by myself either, so if I didn’t have any friends to go with me, I would cancel going all together. This went on until I graduated from High School and entered University in Melbourne.

In University, some friends asked me to go swimming with them. After letting them know that I wasn’t a good swimmer and they said that they didn’t mind it, I decided to go with them. That one time turned out to be quite embarrassing for me..

For the first time, I found out that the university swimming pool was equipped with dividers between each race-line (I don’t know the proper name for it). Therefore, I couldn’t swim ‘sideways’ (along the shallow side only) like back home in Indonesia. I felt a bit worried when I reached the deep side and decided to turn back. I didn’t realise that there was a guy behind me.. (and he was living in the dorm with me!). We almost crashed since he didn’t expect me to turn around in that line, when I was supposed to take the next line (I didn’t want to swim where I couldn’t reach for the sides of the pool).

He was a bit worried and thought that I was drowning. I explained that I wasn’t really sure about swimming in the deep-end and I apologised for the collision. A lifeguard approached us and warned me to never do it again, I was supposed to follow the arrow that showed which way I was supposed to swim in each line. Phew!

I still went swimming in the university pool after that but, not as much for the sport. I did it for the warm pool temperature during the cold winter :-) .. I would go with my friends and we would chat and swim, then followed by afternoon snack. Anyway, I had good times.

I finally really learned to swim and was able to swim after I got married. My husband’s family has a Sunday morning swimming routine. We would go to different swimming pools and have nice lunch afterwards.

My mother-in-law was very enthusiastic in teaching me to swim and my father-in-law gave me a beginner’s book in swimming. While my husband, my brother in-law and my sister in-law.. they constantly tried to pull me under water if I didn’t swim fast enough to get away from them! Exhausting but also very entertaining and good training!

My swimming skills became much better during my first pregnancy. I went swimming 2-4 times a week, 20-40 minutes each time. I was becoming more confident in swimming by myself too. There was a swimming pool in my office building and I was comfortable swimming there even if nobody else swimming with me.

Now, I can go swimming anytime I want to and in any side of the pool I want to. My eldest son is learning to swim from a swimming teacher but, I often swim at the same time he is having his lesson (without interaction with him). I also take my youngest son to swim with me, just to familiarise him with the water in the pool and he has been enjoying his swimming time with me.

My journey in learning to swim might be the longest a person can have but, I’m always grateful for it because more than just learning to swim, I also learned that good friends would always think of a way to help instead of laughing at us. Another thing I found out is that any knowledge or skill can be learned if we really want to and if we are not afraid or embarrass to ask.