Prathima's Miles & Milestones

Swimming was always on my bucket list. Yet, I did not have all the courage to pursue it. A couple of years back when I went to an office trip to Kerala, my colleagues forced me to join them a little deeper into waters and I was damn scared since the waves would go over me and I was the shortest girl in the group.

We held our hands tight yet I lost my balance and freaked out. I was wearing my contact lenses which made me very conscious in the water. Then there was a trip to Goa next. A similar story yet my best friend Ashish lend me his powered googles for Parasailing and I loved it. After the trip, Ashish suggested me to buy customized powered underwater googles by Amazon. I ordered it immediately and enrolled myself for swimming classes with another bestie Ashwini. I totally loved it. I never knew I could swim because I have a negative eye power and was not aware that I could customize googles according to my eyesight!

In the beginner classes, it took a while for me to get along to get used to the breathing techniques. And finally, I was able to do freestyle swimming with side breathing technique on my right side. The depth of the pool was just 7 feet and it was not that frightening on the deep side. I checked my bucket list and happily moved on.

A year later, I felt that I am still yet to master side breathing and comfortably swim long distances, diving and yet to learn back float, breaststroke, deeper ends and I enrolled for intermediate classes at Kensington where the deep end is 16 feet! It was very frightening when I looked down even though I had a kickboard with me. It was all in my mind my coach told me. I had to gather a lot of courage! Once I jumped and looked down I felt that I am on the topmost floor of a building and I might sink down anytime and nobody would save me! Diving from the pool floor itself was very daunting for me. I luckily found nice swim mates who encouraged me to get rid of the fear. My coach reminded me of the goal and purpose of enrollment to the classes. He also told me that going after what scares you is the bravest thing you can do and this stuck in my head. Days passed and I would observe a lot of people diving happily, school kids doing as many laps as possible from the deep ends and slowly I kept telling myself that I can do it too.

Some of the quotes I read again and again until its registered in my brain are:

• Your fears should not define who you are.
• Don’t continue running away from the monsters that you only imagine are under your bed.
• I’m Moana. I love the oceans. We were voyagers 🙂
• Stop pressing pause in your life. Start pressing play. No matter how scary it may seem, it’s better than not living at all.

Days passed by and the test dates for the course was nearing. I would practice for extra minutes at the end of the classes every day to gain confidence. Yet, none of the mornings or the first shower in cold water early in the morning was easy. The first dip and bubble breathe were always difficult. My favorite ones are mushroom float and doggy pedals in deep waters 🙂

I finally cleared my exams which fetched me an intermediate certificate. I wholeheartedly thank my coaches — Sumesh and Rakesh for helping me to get rid of the fear of deep waters. Of course, Nisha Millet herself is such an inspiration for us to perfect our strokes. Being noticed by the Indian Olympic athlete during the classes, getting the tit-bits to up the game is a dream come true.

The life lesson I learned is if you’re scared of planes, get on one and see what happens. If you’re scared of first dates, go on one tonight. If you’re scared of fire, pick up a match. Go run that marathon. Go up on that stage. And go move to a big city. Each time you do something you’re terribly afraid of, you will feel that rush of joy. A rush of pride. Because you survived. You did the impossible.

Please don’t let your fears keep you from living a great life. Don’t let the “what if’s?” control your mind.

To the blue waters and the blue skies, 
P.S. I ❤ Swimming