Swimming

I have always hated almost every kind of organized exercise from the time I was very young. I always despised team sports, probably because I was almost always chosen last. In my very small school the only sports available were basketball and baseball/softball, so there wasn’t much available. When I moved to Minnesota when I was in high school a whole new world opened up to me because there was a swim team.

I have always loved to swim since I was little. I remember taking swimming lessons on cold Minnesota mornings. They wouldn’t open the pool until the water temperature was 55 degrees or some other insanely low number. We would hang on the sides of the pool shivering. When we were in Arkansas the only place to swim was over at the lake, and it wasn’t that often. Sometimes my mom would take us to a swimming pool at a hotel in the next town over. Swimming is the only sport/exercise that I have ever truly enjoyed.

It’s been 15 years or so since I swam very often. But now I have the opportunity to go on my lunch break and swim some laps. There is a pool within 5 minutes driving distance, and the facility is wonderful. We took Quickbeam swimming there this morning and she loved it. I’m hoping to instill a love of swimming in her too. This was the first time I did a lap since high school and I loved it, falling back into the rhythm like I just did it last week. The smell of the chlorine, the sight of the sunbeams on the water and watching the bubbles follow the wake of my hands in the water brought back good memories. My body felt light and buoyant and *right*. I’m hoping now that I have gone it will keep me from putting off going back again.