Justin+Rolon

Swimming “Are you ready,” my father would ask me during the endless car-ride to the town pool. He was going to teach me how to swim, finally, after waiting almost all year for this day. I was just about seven, and would start swimming about a year after my friends because I was just smaller and younger than all of them. They had already taken classes and started swimming in the summer before, but this would finally be my time. “Don’t panic. But what if I drown and no one saves me?” I thought in my mind. That was my biggest fear, drowning. I’ve seen little boys and even my own family members drown, and its not a pretty sight. First of all, you can’t even breathe and you feel so helpless in the water, only seeing what is above, the sunlight in your face and people wondering who will save me. You are so close to death, and if you panic, you have an even bigger chance of drowning. So for the next 15 minutes, I thought to myself, just think positive and don’t panic, and I should be just fine on this 95 degree summer evening. When we got to the pool, I suddenly felt like I died inside. My heart dropped. My legs were shaking. My stomach growled. My arms died. This was finally my time to learn to swim, and I would finally accomplish something that all of my friends have already done. My father seemed a little worried, because many years ago, my older sister had to go through the same thing. She was just about my age, 7, and she was learning how to swim with our father. Her first time out, she failed, and was drowning. No one noticed her at all and for about a minute and thirty seconds, she couldn’t breathe. Luckily a life guard came to the rescue just on time. Just a few more seconds like that, she might not be here today. We went through the locker room and my mother took all of the necessary items we needed through out the day. Sun block, goggles, towels, and our regular clothes our mother placed inside her bag. It was blazing hot outside and I really wanted to get cooled off in the pool, but of course my mother walks so slow, we didn’t get our things ready for about another 15 minutes, and that’s a lot of time when its almost 100 degrees outside. “Are you guys almost done?” I yelled. “Yes, just calm down, the pools not running anywhere,” Mother said. We finally started walking towards the pool and I nervously put sun block on, hoping not to get sun burn. I walked out towards the pool and notice my father, and I run towards him, but I forgot something in that 5 seconds I ran towards him, I didn’t know how to swim. “HELP!’’ I screamed. My father and a life guard came rushing to me, the life guard getting to me first and I walk back to my mother, feeling like total POOP for what I did. I was the embarrassment of the entire pool and I knew in the time we stood, all the kids and parents would be talking about me the entire time. “Are you ok?!” Mother asked. “Does it look like I’m ok? I nearly died out there and you’re asking if I’m ok.” I said. “No need for the attitude, I can easily just punish you and you can’t watch TV for the entire summer.” Mother said. “Sorry.” I said. “That’s what I thought,” Mother said with an arrogant and nasty voice. The whole car ride home, I couldn’t even look at my father. If I did, I would just feel all sad and nasty inside, so I tried with all my might to not look at him or even glance at him the entire time. Of course, my stupid self, I look at him, and he gave me one of his famous death stares. It seemed as if his eyes were as red as the devil’s. As soon as we parked in the drive way, I ran upstairs and locked myself in my room. I felt like crying myself to sleep. I turned on the TV to Spongebob Squarepants, and I hoped this would make me feel better. Cartoons always made me feel better, no matter what one, even an old school cartoon, always seemed to make me smile. It was just one of those things. I finally fell asleep. The next morning, I walked down stairs, with each step creaking. I approach the table and notice everyone’s there eating their breakfast. I pull out the seat on the opposite side of my father, and again he gave me another one of his death stares. I felt like going back upstairs, but I knew if I would, my mother would yell at me. I ate my breakfast faster than anybody, and before I could go watch TV, my mother suddenly told me to stay. “We’re going to your uncle’s house today. Their having a swimming party,” She said. “Oh ok, I guess tell me when were leaving.” I replied. I walked into the basement to watch some TV; it was the morning so all of the old cartoons were on like Tom and Jerry. I watched those “oldies” for a while, then played some video games. It was only about an hour until my mom told me to come up and get in the car. My cousins lived very far away, about 2 hours away. So I quickly grabbed my MP3 player to stall the time. The car ride seemed endless. My MP3 player was running low on battery, and I knew I still had the car ride home and I really needed something to do the whole time. When we got to the house, it was huge! My cousins lived up north, so the houses were much larger then the ones done south. I walked in slowly, and as always said hi to everybody in the entire house before I could do anything. I went to the backyard, and so the massive looking swimming pool with a shiny-brand new slide next to it. Even though it looks like a lot of fun, I still couldn’t go swimming without my parents. Suddenly, a group of my cousins and his friends approached me. “You know how to swim yet?” Tommy asked. “Not yet, but I’m learning slowly,” I responded. “Your not cool that means,” Tommy said and suddenly ran away with his posse. I really felt like total POOP now and I approached my father, sitting alone on the front porch. He knew why I came to him and he knew that I would come to him, sooner or later. “Listen, I’m sorry for acting like a jerk, do you forgive me?” I said. “Sure, but do you still want to swim? There’s still some summer left.” Father said. “YEAH!” I responded.

We walked out to the pool, and it was dark out so we didn’t need sun screen. I walk into the pool with my father holding me. “First, you’ll have to learn how to float on your back.” Father said. “OK.” I tried and after about 15 minutes, I could do it! By no time I was swimming from one side of the pool to the other, without coming up for air! “Thank you so much!” I said. “No problem,” Father said. From that moment on and throughout my life till now, I realized how lucky I was to have a father who’s always there for me and when I’m hurt or need help, he’ll always be there for me. He will always be there in my life and now just by learning how to swim, I finally saw that. __ Author’s Note __ A lost of you may take your parents for granted. Like many kids around the world, you should appreciate them a whole lot more because you’ll always need them, no matter what. When I was smaller, I was always a momma’s boy, always with my mother and never my father. I always wanted to be close to him, but I would always be scared to do something or even ask him if he wanted to hang out. By teaching me how to swim, something so simple, made me a hundred times closer to my father and now our relationship is so much better then it was before. Now, I want every other kid in the world to know how important they are in our lives and we’ll miss them when they’re gone, regretting things you said to them or did to them. As a kid, you make many mistakes and your parents help you with it and aid you. They always take care of you and if they ask you something small such as getting them a drink, you usually reply: “Nah, I’m way too tired. Do it yourself.” They do so much more for us and we don’t do the small things. I’ve always been one of those lazy kids who don’t like to help their parents, and ever since the swimming situation, I have changed a lot and I do basically anything my parents ask me, even if it is something big or small, I do. Every single year, my new year’s resolution has to do with helping around the house or something to do with helping my mom or dad. I try my best to fulfill this. I really hope that all of the kids around the world will start appreciating their parents a little more.