Overcoming Despair

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

When I was 13 years old I almost drowned. Like a lot of my friends, I loved going to our neighborhood pool in the summertime. My “only” problem was that I couldn’t swim, and I didn’t tell anyone. I always stayed on the shallow end of the pool bopping around and kicking my legs as I hung on to the sides. I was extremely afraid of the deep end, and I rarely ventured near it. Whenever I’d try, the feeling of my feet leaving the pool’s floor would send me running back to the other end!

One summer afternoon our community pool had kids everywhere. I don’t remember seeing any adults. We were all having a great time, and at some point one of my friends started a game of chase around the wet slippery pool side. She and I got a kick out of seeing who was the fastest, and who would lose their balance trying to get away. (With youth comes very short-sighted judgment!)

It was all fun and games until she thought it was cute to pushed me into the deep end of the pool. It was 6 feet deep, and I was 4'11 at best! I went into silent despair as my head went under.

I recall not wanting to be embarrassed so I tried everything on my own at first. I was kicking and moving my arms but nothing I did was enough to keep my head above water.

There were older kids out there and I didn’t want them to know that I couldn’t swim. I was fighting the water as my body bobbed up and…