Entering with a splash.

Every summer I went to Taber to go to swimming lessons. It was an outdoor pool and our lessons began at 8:00 am. I don't think that anyone who was planning to swim had anything to do with that schedule. Perhaps we were actually there to help train future lifeguards on how to spot hypothermia victims. I recall shivering on the side of the pool, goose pimples, blue skin and chattering teeth and then having to dangle our feet into the water.

"Oh, how cute, look at those little kids learning to swim!" I could hear a voice exclaiming in adoring tones. The Chain link fence that separated me from her made me wonder at her excitement. I WAS A PRISONER HERE!

I suppose it was not all bad. I did learn some useful skills. One, of course, was how to change my clothes very fast. Changing back into dry clothes at the end of the swimming lessons was a feared event. I was terrified of the large boys in the changing room. They were using many words that I was not allowed to use and the occasional snap of a wet towel motivated my little hands to pull my underwear over my dripping wet skin. I feared that place.

One morning our cute teenage instructor ordered us to dive into the pool. Lined up like a flock of penguins, we took our turns diving into the frigid waves. My turn came. I hated diving head first (or at least I hated the concept for I had yet to actually do it). I kept thinking that having my head should not be the first thing to hit something - this was a bad idea. I dove in. I tried to remember the advice our teacher had given us - go straight in head first don't chicken out or else you will do a belly flop.

I did it. I went straight in and made my body point straight like a javelin. My little human head was calculating a vector that would avoid the belly flop area. Upon entering the water my hands slackened to my sides and I enjoyed the rush of the water past my face. I dove, I really did it. I was descending rapidly and I was feeling like a marine mammal darting through the water. My little boy turned porpoise magnificently cut through the water and took up a close inspection of the pool floor. What a turning point. I did not know I could go that deep and I certainly was not expecting such a sudden stop made possible by my head clashing with concrete.

I slowly bobbed to the surface. I was too embarrassed to mention my underwater adventure to my teacher. She didn't notice anyway. I think she was talking to her boyfriend on the other side of the fence.

Back in line to do it again. I belly flopped.

I hate diving.