Listenig to Rusty’s efforts in the swimming pool remind me my own learning experiences. I learned to swim when I was 8. My family have moved from Mexico City to Morelia. In these region there are a lot of hot springs and water parks. We used to go quite frequent and my parents soon realized that their kids were fearless.
We could just instinctively float and somehow move around, but that was it. Nevertheless, we loved to spring into the adults pool, forwards, backwards, over and over. Needless to say, that my parents, who could not swim at all, didn’t enjoy it as much as we kids did.
One summer, it was planned to go with the aunts families to the beach. The parent thought, that before we should have a swimming course in the YMCA. Parent’s logic was, that if we could swim, they would not have to worry for us.
I remember very well, that I was 8, because in the YMCA nobody believed me. I guess, that’s one of the advantages of being short, people think that you are younger. At that time, it didn’t feel favorable. They wanted to send me to a younger group. They asked again and again, me, my cousins my uncles and aunts. At the end, I don’t know, if they believed it or just gave up, but I was allowed to stay in the 8 years old group.
When we arrived to the beach, three families, that is six adults, eight kids and two babies, we all felt very confident that in that course my cousins and I have learned all what we needed to have fun. We did indeed.
One afternoon, the adults were just lying and we children were still in the water. Some of my cousins discovered a small boat, I don’t know, maybe 200 meters away from the beach. It was probably a boat to drive tourists or of a fisherman. No idea. Fact was, that it was taken away on purpose to avoid people getting in it.
You may have already guessed: we started a race to that boat. When we got there, we saw our parents and the owner shouting at us, from the beach, to leave the boat and come back to the beach... Gosh, those were good times, when we were fearless!
