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today we celebrate philippine independence day. as always during holidays and weekends, my brother's family came over to my place for a late afternoon swim. when we arrived at the pool area, we were dismayed that it was closed off. the big pool was undergoing cleaning and since it was a holiday, there was no admin personnel available to do the cleaning. we were about to go down and just have dinner when my naughty nephew B ran towards the kiddie pool. my brother ran after him and discovered that the kiddie pool was clean! we looked for the guard to confirm that the pool was clean and that we can use it for the day. and so the two kids and me, my brother J and sister in law R decided to swim inside the kiddie pool. the pool was round and the water was about 3 feet deep.
i dont know how to swim so for the first half, i just stayed at the side while my J and R played with the kids. then they thought of teaching me to swim. the main reason i have never learned to swim is because i'm scared of going inside the water and the thought of not being able to touch anything but water. but since the pool water was shallow (i mean, 3ft deep, i would be the stupidest person to drown right?) and to the encouragement of J & R, i thought, what the heck, might as well listen to them.
at first, J was teaching me to how to breathe underwater. i tried a couple of times but i hate water going inside my nose.. it just hurts. then R thought of teaching me to stay straight with my face down and nose inside the water, but again i didn't want to put my face underwater so i was doing dog paddle. then my younger nephew took off his salbabida and an idea occurred to my brother. he told me to use the salbabida and see if i can practice swimming straight. after a few tries, i finally got the hang of it (but still using the salbabida). then R said why don't you try floating? my brother held me then told me to just keep calm, dont tense up and he will slowly let go. so i tried my best to relax until he let go.. and to my shock.. i was floating!!! omg! i couldn't believe it!! my ears were underwater and i couldn't hear a thing but a small buzzing sound.. i felt i was in another world. thats when the logic of how to float struck me. i went up and tried a couple of times and to everyone's delight, i was floating and i was getting more confident as i kept trying.
then i went back to the normal swimming position, face down and to my surprise, my body was straight and i now could put the face and nose underwater! my brother said that i should practice every other day so that i wont forget the feeling and continue to gain confidence. R also suggested for me to buy a kickboard to practice (in lieu of the salbabida) just until i can swim straight.
so today, it's not just philippine independence day, but it's also my independence... to finally take a step towards learning to swim and not being afraid of the water!
i dont know how to swim so for the first half, i just stayed at the side while my J and R played with the kids. then they thought of teaching me to swim. the main reason i have never learned to swim is because i'm scared of going inside the water and the thought of not being able to touch anything but water. but since the pool water was shallow (i mean, 3ft deep, i would be the stupidest person to drown right?) and to the encouragement of J & R, i thought, what the heck, might as well listen to them.
at first, J was teaching me to how to breathe underwater. i tried a couple of times but i hate water going inside my nose.. it just hurts. then R thought of teaching me to stay straight with my face down and nose inside the water, but again i didn't want to put my face underwater so i was doing dog paddle. then my younger nephew took off his salbabida and an idea occurred to my brother. he told me to use the salbabida and see if i can practice swimming straight. after a few tries, i finally got the hang of it (but still using the salbabida). then R said why don't you try floating? my brother held me then told me to just keep calm, dont tense up and he will slowly let go. so i tried my best to relax until he let go.. and to my shock.. i was floating!!! omg! i couldn't believe it!! my ears were underwater and i couldn't hear a thing but a small buzzing sound.. i felt i was in another world. thats when the logic of how to float struck me. i went up and tried a couple of times and to everyone's delight, i was floating and i was getting more confident as i kept trying.
then i went back to the normal swimming position, face down and to my surprise, my body was straight and i now could put the face and nose underwater! my brother said that i should practice every other day so that i wont forget the feeling and continue to gain confidence. R also suggested for me to buy a kickboard to practice (in lieu of the salbabida) just until i can swim straight.
so today, it's not just philippine independence day, but it's also my independence... to finally take a step towards learning to swim and not being afraid of the water!
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