Today is not a very busy day, just half a day. Oh, I
forgot, I have this fifty year old,
middle- aged woman to teach how to swim. It’s her first lesson today, not
looking forward to this. She is bound to be bossy and know exactly what she is
doing and that I am wrong in what I am telling her. I don’t teach many old
people because of this but Katie’s off today and I am covering her lessons. She
had better stick to her word, buy me that beer later for this! I mainly teach children, it is fun but sometimes
you have those who mess about and think they’re untouchable in the water until
they end up falling in the pool and nearly drowning; they’re not so cocky then.
The middle aged woman did not really look her age; she had
black, short hair green eyes and a thin figure. Thoughts of worry were going
across my mind and I tried to push them aside and visualise my pint to get me
through.
She came down the steps
into the pool and the lesson began. She was a little reluctant to do what I asked
and she did not trust me, I was trying to hold her in the water to practise her
arm and leg kick. Then, all of a sudden she slipped and panicked and was about
to fall under, head first . I caught her before she fell in and then something
clicked between us. After an accident people
would give up and go home but she didn’t, she carried straight on and insisted
that she was okay and wanted to do that exact same move again. From then on I
admired her for what had just happened and for wanting to learn to swim at her
age. The
concentration in her face showed; she was trying so hard to master swimming and
willingness not to let it beat her. I felt myself willing her to do this and
just to swim a few steps and to have faith in herself. Suddenly, she shouted at me to let go of her
waist and I did. She swam nearly a width. I felt myself egging her on and her head
kept going under the water slightly but this did not stop her, she carried on
until she was about two foot away from the edge and said,
“That’s enough, now,”
With a cheeky
smile on her face. I smiled back at her and she said,
“Thank you for everything, I won’t forget this.”
I was so happy for
her and what she had done. I did this too,
I was part of helping her master swimming. It felt good. I shouted to her.
“I’ll see you next week.”
She did not answer,
she just turned and looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and walked off.
I went for a coffee and a cigarette, all I could think
about was her. I should not have judged her on her age and it made me think
that maybe I should give the older generation a chance and teach them to swim;
it might not be that bad. The lady had a
huge impact on me. It made me think I should not run away from things I am
afraid of and that I should take on new challenges. I wondered who was teaching
who. The lady taught me to not judge a book by its cover, a good job she came when
she did because now I can change a few things about myself. I just thought of the
look she gave me when she left, that glint in her eye, as if to say I did what
I came to do.
copyright@ Emma Fitzgerald
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