Overcoming Fears

I have been afraid of the water from birth.  My mom has told me many times how even as a baby, I hated being in the water.  I would fight her just to take a bath.  Like any good mom, she signed me up for swimming lessons, hoping that would help me overcome my fears.  Unfortunately, that's not how it worked out.  I ended up in a class with a swim instructor that didn't work with me on getting my face wet...she just pushed my face in the water.  And she did it on a day my mom was there watching.  Needless to say my mom, a former swim teacher, yanked me out of lessons so fast I probably got whiplash.  I never went back.

My fear of water never receeded and has followed me well into adulthood.  I've always wanted to be able to swim, but have always hated getting my face wet.  In fact, it wasn't until after giving birth that I was even able to get my face wet in the shower.  I guess I figured if I survived labor and delivery, I could handle putting my face in the running water of the shower.  Pools are a totally different story. 

Andrew seems to have inherited my fear of getting his face wet.  I was hoping swimming lessons would help him, but they just let him kick on a kickboard and when he would jump into the pool, catch him before he got his face wet.  So, we went to my mom's today to see if we could work with him a little bit.  I decided that I couldn't expect him to get his face wet if I wasn't willing to get mine wet.  So we would both go underwater.  That's quite an accomplishment for me.  I'm still not up to proper swim breathing, but it's a start.

Feeling rather confident after a couple of hours in the pool, I decided to do something that I never imagined I would ever do.  I jumped into the pool from the side.  Now, keep in mind that when I get nervous, I laugh.  Yes, I was nervous jumping into the pool.  Mid-jump, I started laughing and about drown myself.  But I came up and survived.  I can't even begin to tell you how scared I was standing on the side of the pool.  Clayton was awesome and encouraged me to do it.

So, I did something today that completely terrified me.  And I feel GREAT!!  I may actually be able to swim laps one of these days.  I am capable of swimming...just as long as my face is out of the water and I don't have to swim very far.  My goal is to someday have a pool and get up every morning and swim laps.  Who knows, if I can get my running up to snuff and my biking up to par, I may just try out a triathalon with Heidi!  But probably not for a year or two.  ;o)