Conquering the Deep End

Untitled Part 1

It was a bright sunny day of the week I remember and only the indoor pool was open at Krannert Park when we went to swim. The huge indoor pool brought back memories of taking swim lessons there. Had it really been that long ago when my swim teacher held me and then let go, allowing me to swim a short distance going backwards or forwards? Even though those memories burned vivid in my mind the pool still felt foreign. It had been so long ago. Would I still know how to swim?

At the end of the pool they started blowing up an obstacle course in the deep end, what every little kid comes to call it. The deep end, on the far side of the pool, was a whopping twelve feet and to a kid who is only five feet tall it seems pretty bottomless. "Could I do it?" I remember asking one of my parents, because a big blow up obstacle course seems fun even if it is in the deep end. My question was practically a supplication asked as humbly as I could for being so young. But, as all little kids are told, they said that it was too deep on that end for me to swim in. I might have envisioned drowning, or maybe I didn't care. What I do recollect exactly is my parents telling me that if I swam from one end of the pool to the other in the shallow water I could do the obstacle course. If I could do it without stopping, all the way, I could go into the deep end.

That deep end at Krannert loomed at the end of the pool taunting me. "OK," I said. And I did it. All by myself. To a little kid whose still learning the ropes of life I couldn't believe it. Whenever I recall the memory I still remember the pride that swelled in my chest as I walked toward the other end of the pool. As I took my place in front of the obstacle course I tried to think back to swim lessons as a child. When I got to the end of the obstacle course I was to jump off and into the water, a lifeguard, in charge of making sure no one got hurt, told me. Then, I decided on my own, I would kick my legs and stay afloat in the unfathomable water of the deep end. First, though, I was to find out by the lifeguard that I had to race against a boy, the whole point of the obstacle course. I vaguely remember feeling like beating him was daunting.

When I got to the endI realized I hadn't been able to beat him however the feeling of jumping offand landing in the water made up for it. I no longer cared that I couldn't beatthe boy because I was staying afloat in the deep end. I was swimming.