Swimming lessons

*Splash*

The young girl hopped around, alone in the shallow end of a swimming pool, enjoying the feel of cool water on her skin. Unknown to her, she was slowly proceeding further towards the deeper end of the pool, while happily jumping about in the water.

Suddenly, she could no longer feel the floor under her feet. The depth of the pool increased abruptly at that point, and she plunged deep into the water.

She gasped in surprise, swallowing a mouthful of water. Panicking, she flapped her arms in desperation and kicked wildly. She didn't know how to swim! Waving her arms about, she tried to cry out in despair... but no sound emerged as she choked on another mouthful of water. Her lungs burned, and her sides hurt. The more she thrashed, the further she sank.

Finally, exhausted, she stopped struggling and resigned herself to fate. If she was to die in the watery depths, so be it. A sense of peace came over her, and she relaxed.

She sank deeper ... stopped... and started floating upwards. Soon, she could see the blurry surface of the water, and her head broke through to the air above. She coughed, and took a slow deep breath... the feeling of air rushing into her lungs brought a joy that was simply indescribable.

In her memory, she distantly recalled some lessons she'd learned on floating... To float, she needed to relax, breathe gently, and paddle slowly in the direction she wanted to go. So, doing all this, she slowly floated back to the shallow end, scrambled out of the pool, and sat at its edge.

Instead of avoiding the water, the girl made a silent resolution to take up swimming lessons. She never wanted to come close to drowning again, and wanted to be able to swim fearlessly in the deep end of the pool someday. She realised it was her wild and directionless thrashing that had caused her to sink deeper back then.

*Splash*

Several years later, the young lady plunged into the deep end of another swimming pool, one that was much deeper than the pool she had nearly drowned in a few years ago. With strong and controlled strokes, she dived to the bottom of the pool, swam back up, did several somersaults halfway through (just for fun), then swam back to the edge of the pool. Easy.

And from that experience, she learned the importance of preparation and the importance of lifeguards.

There was little difference between the shallow and deep ends of a swimming pool... same pool, same water... only the depths were different. However, the danger didn't lie in the different depths, but in the lack of preparation to go from one depth to another. If she never learned to 'swim', it would be difficult or even dangerous to go from 'shallow water' to 'deeper water'.
Moreover, she could learn to just float around ... but she could now do so much more in both the shallow and deep ends if she learned how to swim too. Similarly in life, many situations require preparation and/or 'training' ... to equip, improve, and to widen horizons ...

Furthermore, no matter how skilled and able she may have been, there would also be times that she could encounter difficulties when 'swimming' (such as muscle cramps). Lifeguards would be there to keep an eye out for her, and to help if she (or others) might be in any danger. Similarly in life, she needed to have people whom she could be accountable to, to help keep an eye out for her, keep her on the right track, and to turn to in times of need.

The young lady doesn't swim as often as she did before. However, she continues to remember the small lessons that she learned as a little girl who'd nearly drowned before, but who has now learned to swim through life.