Swimming and Me

No, I have not swum in this pool. This is one of the famous pools at Hearst Castle - the one under the tennis courts. But I would like to swim in this pool. Perhaps someday I'll win a contest.

Swimming is big with me. I love it. I would swim all day if I could - although, I actually have done that and I wouldn't recommend it. It dries out your skin and leaves you incredibly itchy for days afterward. But I love it nonetheless.

When I was very little my parents took me to the beach and held me in the surf while the waves washed over me. Now, we all know that I have a few issues with the ocean, but that has not transferred over to your standard swimming pool.

I learned how to swim (ish) when I was still in diapers. I took swimming lessons in elementary school. I stepped on a bee on the side of the pool. I went swimming everyday for many summers when I was a child.

There's just something about being in a clear pool on a bright day, and swimming underwater, turned over so that you can see the sun glinting off the surface. Swimming is my favorite form of exercise.

Unfortunately, despite having lived in numerous apartment buildings, I have only lived in one place with a pool. And I didn't take much advantage of it - I think I only swam once or twice. Swimming alone does not appeal to me nearly as much as swimming with friends.

Mostly I miss the pool I grew up with, at the high school just a few blocks from my house. I remember how my membership card looked, how the locker room smelled, the Olympic sized lap pool and the diving pool. Sometimes they would close the diving boards and just let us kids swim around in the thirteen foot deep pool, and I would play and frolic and over and over swim to the bottom, despite the protests from my ears. I dream about that pool.

Sometimes I dream I'm swimming, but I can breathe in the water and it is delightful. It's like flying.