#200: Swim right

I’ve been proud of my ability to swim without drowning for a while now.  Then my brother told me, after seeing me swim, “You need to work on your stroke,” and my sister immediately added, “You could have such a pretty stroke if you just changed it entirely from what you’re doing.”  Which I feel is akin to saying to an overweight person, “You’d be so pretty if you just lost a few pounds.”

I was upset because I had finally made it to the point where I thought I was decent enough to not look like an idiot while swimming.  Although in the back of my mind I still worried people at the pool were staring at me and saying, “What is that girl doing in there?  Clearly it’s not swimming,” I figured it couldn’t be that bad since I never actually heard anyone say that.  Now that I’d heard it–from my siblings no less–my worst fear (this is an exaggeration) had finally come true.  It’s like (this is also an exaggeration) on Friends when Ross writes the list to try to choose between Julie and Rachel, and Rachel says, “Imagine the worst things you think about yourself. Now, how would you feel if the one person that you trusted the most in the world not only thinks them too, but actually uses them as reasons not to be with you?”

When my brother and sister saw how much it affected me, they tried to tell me it was only because they’ve been swimming for 10-15 years that they could tell, but it was too little too late.  I vowed right then to never swim again.  I really just meant I would never swim in front of my brother and sister again.

Of course, now that I knew I was doing it wrong, I had to at least try it the “right” way.  So that’s what I did yesterday.  And it worked!  I mean, I didn’t drown.  It was harder, and it was more tiring, but at least I can go back to thinking I don’t look like a complete idiot in the pool.

Which is all anyone really wants–to do something they enjoy and not look like an idiot.