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The Drowning Pool

Sink or swim.

By Rosie Gorelik

When I was 3, I took swimming lessons at the Y, and I will never forget this. For some reason, they made us climb up to and jump off of the 10 foot high diving board. NO idea why 3 year olds should be jumping off a 10 foot diving board, seriously. (We had floats on our backs, but that's not the point at. all.) And if you didn't jump, they would push you off.

One day my mother told me if I jumped on my own, she would buy me a toy. She never bought me toys except at Christmas or birthdays, so I was pretty happy! When I got up there, I looked down (hell, 10 feet scares me NOW but well do I remember that it looked like jumping off the empire state building would look now - it was forever down to the water, petrifying!) and I froze in complete terror. There wasn't a single thought of a toy, or a reward, or anything but the horror of being asked to JUMP from that incredible, petrifying height. Tears were running down my face (though I wasn't sobbing) and I was frozen in place, although my legs were starting to buckle under me. Well, whatever happened next I blocked out. No idea. I guess I must have assumed I jumped, but I guess I didn't, because when I later remembered the toy and asked about it, she told me I hadn't jumped, that I'd had to be pushed, so no toy. Crying and begging didn't do a thing; and she was furious.

I still don't have the slightest idea what the purpose of that jump/push was. It certainly didn't help anyone learn to swim. It was certainly cruel. I should have gotten a toy just for being put through that torture. Gah, don't worry - at least console yourself that if they had demanded he do something like THAT you probably would have put your foot down in the beginning.

Posted by: AnaBanana | Feb 12, 2008 21:51

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