Summer is here! I hope we will get the sip the pool water more often this summer then last year. Not that I love swimming, because I don’t. I just want to see my family have fun playing in the pool for which I contribute money every month.

Ricky has won prizes in swimming. And I am his shame. I made up every excuse to ditch mandatory swimming classes in high school.

“My forehead feels kinda hot and I’m getting some sort of body chills. Cough, cough. Do you think I should swim today?”

“Urg! My blood work came back from the lab tested positively allergic to chlorine.” Good try Iris!

“Well, it’s that time of the month…and I can’t.” But how often could I use this excuse?

When I ran out of stories, I’d be floating on the 4-ft side of the pool. Okay…I lied again. I didn’t know how to float (and I still don’t!). When the rest of the class was working on their four styles, I was on the far other side of the pool, practicing my sinking-then-fighting-back-to-the-water-surface skill. I am thankful that I had finally graduated from college and no more humiliating swimming lessons for me. They were my biggest fear. Worse than public speaking. Yes, it’s that bad!

I can proudly tell you that being the wife of a good swimmer, I can finally swim. But only if my feet can touch the bottom of the swimming pool.