My Hilarious First Attempt at Swimming: A Dive to Remember

I want to take you back to the day where I decided to go for my first swimming.

As a full-grown adult, I never knew how to swim till my 20s. I never had the opportunity to go for swimming since when I was a kid. Maybe I thought I was afraid or my parents did not give me the opportunity. Growing up in Africa, you know what that means, sometimes you don’t have some opportunities to do some things with other kids.

I thought it was time to wait on unveil my swimming skills which I felt was inherent in me, this did not actually good as I planned.

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Yeah, I was ready. I went with my friends to a community pool. I’m ready to turn to be the sharks and dolphins of my time, the aqua girl. It was a sunny day, and at that time, I bought my brand new swimming trunk from the market. I was so happy that I’ll be taking on and will be swimming like a champion that day. So at that moment, it looked like I was going for an audition, maybe a tournament, or going to represent my country for a swimming competition. I went with my friends so we already shot in the water.

So they started. At first, I was afraid of the water, thinking the water was going to swallow me. But my friend, my main friends, started motivating me and telling me to jump, that the water won’t hurt me. I thought so, I think it’s easy for them because I’ll be swimming, but I was trying to negotiate with the spirits of my ancestors to save me from this risk which I’m about to take. It was quite a fun moment.

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At last, I decided to dive. The way I dived I thought I would land the way those Olympic guys that I watch on YouTube landed. So I spread out like an eagle, and I was trying to pop my shares and lock my head with my hand. Then I was expecting a flawless drive, explore dive. But after I dive, it seems like the people around the pool became silent. They gave me a one-minute silence, I see if I just passed out. It was as if I stood issue, and everyone was looking at me.

The way I dived into the water, my belly splashed, heat on the head on the water so hot, hard, and it hurt me so much on my belly. It was as if I was the one that patted the Red Sea. And that moment was so much funny but embarrassing moment. My friend keep screaming and said in pidgin, “You they dive, no be fighty, they fight with water now. Are you a local champion?” I couldn’t help but laugh. While people also were laughing. Even the poor man also was laughing profusely. He hadn’t seen this kind of moment before.

The way I dived into the water, it was as if I was a big whale, and I was just fapping and making a lot of noise I was swimming. Even though I was not moving, I was still using my strength and my hands and my arms to keep flopping the water. At that moment, I did not become that pro swimmer that I thought I would be or on my first day. I thought it was so easy, but at least I made everyone laugh that period. I made their day as one of the worst Olympic champion ever.

And I went home with a sore belly. And from that day, I expected water. They said water has no enemy. But I thought that day water became my enemy and also my friend at the same time. So if anyone is scared to try something new, sometimes you don’t know what at first time you might be bad at it, but you don’t think you will be good. But the laughter and those lessons are what it is. And from that day, I kept improving. If you take anything, you take a risk. At least you try it.