The Pool = Life

“Why? Why did you switch my lessons? I HATE this place! I don’t want to go! Don’t make me go!’

“Honey, we switched your lesson program because you weren’t making progress at the last one. You hadn’t moved a level in more than a year.”

“But I liked it there!”

“We know, but you weren’t learning. You stood at the side of the pool, waiting for your turn with the instructor, playing in the water, and not actually swimming. That’s not swimming lessons. It’s us paying for you to play in the pool.”

(wailing, crying…..)

“How could you do this to me? ”WHY? WHY? I HATE THAT PLACE!”

“You’ve only been there once. You can carry on all you want, Kel, you’re going to swim lessons. No amount of protesting from you is going to change our minds.”

*flash forward to the pool*

She gets in one last begging to be let out of it. No dice.

She gets in the pool, listens to the instructor, and she swims anyway.

When we are leaving, she’s still on the verge of tears.

“Look me in the eyes, Kel. I know how much you didn’t want to do this. But you got in the pool and swam anyway. That took guts. Good job.”

As they get older, I want to make sure they learn to swim anyway. The pool is actually a whole lot like life.

*Originally published over at A Nervous Tic Motion. Cool folks – go hang over there.